Scholars criticize US' hostility for China

Countering China has been counterproductive for the United States and hurt global development, according to Chinese scholars, who called for more rational dialogue and cooperation between the two nations.

Although trade friction has created negative impacts on China's growth, the United States has hurt its own manufacturing sector and multinational companies by penalizing Chinese exports, said Liu Yuanchun, vice-president of Renmin University of China.

He said at a seminar that since the US imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, the US trade deficit has worsened. It widened to $55.5 billion in May, up from a revised April reading of $51.2 billion, the US Commerce Department said.

Even as US President Donald Trump has tried to convince companies to move their manufacturing back to the US, several major US companies have increased their strategic investment in China, indicating that China remains a key supplier, Liu said.

The seminar, Development of China and the World, was hosted on Monday by Renmin University of China. It invited experts and scholars in economy and trade, international relations and military issues to discuss a recent open letter written by a retired US veteran, with 130 others listed as co-signatories.

The letter, released on Thursday, urged Trump to "stay the course on your path of countering" China, claiming Beijing "imperils the US" and does not recognize the existing international order.

But Li Wei, a director of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said US exports to China created over 1.1 million US jobs from 2009 to 2018, while their trade volume increased from $27.4 billion in 2006 to $125.3 billion in 2018.

Highly integrated global industrial and value chains and division of labor mean no one can live without others, Li said.

"As they are the world's largest economies, trade frictions between China and the US affect not only the two, but also the development of many other countries, and even the whole world," Li said.

Lin Guijun, executive dean of the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, said China's economic progress has promoted the growth of exports and the GDPs of other countries, as China's development brings an increasing need to import goods and services.

"We can say that the US trade war against China is actually a war against Asia and the entire global community," he said.

Early this month, 100 China experts in the US sent an open letter to Trump, saying "China is not an enemy" and that the worsening relationship "does not serve American or global interests".

Gao Fei, vice-president of China Foreign Affairs University, said the benign development of the Sino-US relations requires more rational voices, especially from Washington.

He said it is of great importance for China and the US to move toward the same direction and find a common path, as history has proved that only cooperation can bring benefits and a win-win situation to both.

Wang Honggang, head of the Institute of American Studies at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, emphasized that China's development is not about seeking hegemony, and Beijing and Washington should strengthen their dialogue about the international order.

"Any sovereign state has the right to pursue its own modernization since the establishment of the modern international order," he said. "As the US has achieved its goal, those less developed countries should also have the corresponding rights to realize theirs."