China-US biz community upbeat after Xi-Biden meeting
Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden have held their first face-to-face virtual meeting on Tuesday, during which the two sides highlighted trade and economic issues of mutual concern and have reached consensus on ramping up communication on each other’s economic policies.
An important milestone at a new crossroad
Although trade and economic issue is not the focal point of the summit meeting, the long-anticipated conference is deemed as setting the tone for bilateral trade and economic cooperation between the world’s two largest economies, after softening rhetoric from Washington over possible removal of Trump’s punitive tariffs on Chinese imports.
Meanwhile, skyrocketing inflation in the US, hitting 31-year high in October, has triggered broad unhappiness among ordinary Americans about surging prices, which may have pushed the Biden administration to soften its hardline approach toward China.
Though the remarks by the two leaders also expose certain disputes that need to be settled, the summit meeting sends a signal that bilateral economic ties is unlikely to drift apart further, and is on a trajectory to see less conflict and more of “healthy competition”in the future, analysts said.
More dialogue channels between the two countries’ economic teams to strengthen communication will be set up in the coming months, analysts said.
Build up economic pie through cooperation
On trade ties, President Xi described the China-US economic and trade relations as mutually beneficial in nature and the two sides need to “make the cake bigger” through cooperation. He also stressed that economic and trade issues between the two countries should not be politicized, while urging the US to stop abusing or overstretching the concept of national security to suppress Chinese enterprises.
“China takes seriously the wishes of US business community to travel to China more easily, and has agreed to upgrade a ‘fast-track’ arrangement, which will further enhance economic and trade exchanges between China and the US and boost the recovery of the two economies,” Xi said.
China-U.S. trade cooperation mutually beneficial
“The meeting sets the overall direction for bilateral trade and economic cooperation between the world’s two largest economies to navigate through difficulties, and both sides have recognized common ground for economic cooperation to continue and expand,” Gao Lingyun, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing who has closely followed China-US trade negotiations told the Global Times on Tuesday.Gao said that more channels to strengthen communication and cooperation will be established after the summit meeting.
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