From Guo Yan
Business circles in the U.S. are hoping for a sigh of relief from the face-to-face meeting between heads of the world’s two largest economies during the APEC summit held in San Francisco.
U.S. aerospace giant Boeing has shifted into full gear to win back its most important overseas market.
“In the next two decades, China will be the world’s largest aviation market. We’re very confident for the Chinese market,” Alvin Liu, president of Boeing China, said during a major import expo recently wrapped up in Shanghai.
Liu’s appointment in August came at a tough time for Boeing amid geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing.
How to help his company win back their lost battleground in their most important overseas aviation market is a big challenge for him.
The aerospace giant suffered five quarterly losses on end on lower deliveries. Apart from the global grounding of 737 Max after two fatal crashes, U.S. sanctions against China also dented its businesses.
Big U.S. firms like Boeing are among the massive casualties of the trade war waged by the Trump administration in 2018.
In the year 2017, China, Boeing’s top source of revenue, made up 26% of the plane maker’s global deliveries but has declined to less than 5% since 2020.
One man’s loss is another man’s gain.
The loss of Boeing contributed to the growth of its European rival Airbus, which is expected to continue its win in 2023 as it has beaten Boeing in orders and deliveries.
Boeing forecast that, in the next two decades, Asia-Pacific markets will account for more than 40 percent of global demand with half coming from China.
Antagonizing China deprives the competitive edge of American firms like Boeing in the ever-changing global market.
Were it not for the trade war, Boeing probably wouldn’t have lost its dominance to its competitor, whose in-service fleet in China makes up half of the Chinese market.
Just a few days ago, the US Department of Agriculture hosted a pavilion for the first time at the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, which started to be held in 2018.
“Companies are not leaving China, because they continue to see China as a very important and strategic market for them,” Eric Zheng, said President of AmCham Shanghai during the business gathering.
The participation of global chipmakers in the CIIE, including U.S. Semiconductor giant Micron technology, despite Washington’s restrictions showed their eagerness to boost businesses in China.
Similar to the Boeing-Airbus story, U.S. chipmakers are seeing their Chinese counterparts getting a bigger share of the market as the U.S. government tightens curbs on sales to China.
These curbs and sanctions gave the chance for Chinese domestic tech firms like Huawei to grow their chip businesses.
What doesn’t kill a person only makes him stronger.
The same goes for a company.
It could be said that U.S. regulators have helped to make the breakthrough of China’s homegrown chips possible.
Treating China as a zero-sum rival backfires.
The world’s two largest economies are competitors but also partners with important interwoven interests.
Just as California Governor Gavin Newsom said during his recent trip to China, with a mentality of abundance rather than zero-sum, the more successful China is the more successful the U.S. is.
When core interests of both countries are properly handled, China-US relations can grow smoothly.
Otherwise, they will be in trouble.
From “trade war” to “tech war”, history has shown that waging a war against China hasn’t and won’t be a win for the U.S..
The wars waged by Trump administration against China have not only failed to serve its purpose, but also backfired on the U.S. economy.
Donald Trump claimed that tariffs imposed on China would help to create jobs for Americans.
Yet, things didn’t happen as he wished.
A study commissioned by the U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC) showed that U.S. trade war with China has caused a peak loss of 245,000 U.S. jobs, but a gradual scaling back of tariffs on both sides would boost growth and lead to an additional 145,000 jobs by 2025.
Various materials imported by U.S. businesses became more expensive as a result.
Companies had to either absorb the cost of the tariffs or pass them on to consumers, who have been suffering high inflation over the past two years.
Rising living costs have been taken a big bite out of consumers’ wallets.
Moody’s Analytics showed that the typical American household spent nearly 710 U.S. dollars more in July than they did two years ago to buy the same goods and services.
A recent poll released by the Suffolk University Sawyer Business School showed that nearly 70% of US residents say the economy is getting worse, not better.
It’s time for the U.S. to forget about messing with China and to take good care of its people’s wallets and well-being.
The public in the U.S. are still telling today’s government that “It’s the economy, Stupid!”, a catchphrase put forward by James Carville, Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign manager, nearly 30 years ago.
The containment of China economically or militarily doesn’t work. Bill Clinton realized this already in 1997, so should the incumbent president.
If the U.S. administration keeps provoking China by, for instance, imposing economic sanctions, peddling its policy of decoupling or de-risking, or messing with China’s internal affairs, there’s no reason for China not to fight back.
The International Monetary Fund predicted that the Asia-Pacific region remains a key driver of global growth in 2023, despite facing headwinds from changing global demands.
The region is expected to contribute nearly 70 percent of global growth in 2023, with China alone contributing nearly 35 percent of the growth.
China remains a major growth engine for the Asia-Pacific and beyond.
Chinese president Xi Jinping pointed out once that the Asia Pacific is large enough to accommodate China and America. And the earth is big enough for the two countries to develop on their own path.
As the two major powers in the Asia- Pacific region, their abilities to properly handle differences can deeply influence the future of the region.
It’s time for the U.S administration to make some concrete efforts to help the two sides move toward a constructive direction, both for the sake of stable ties between the world’s two largest economies and for the prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.
“What is your biggest takeaway from this trip?” a reporter asked in an interview of Gavin Newsom while he was touring the Great Wall. “Tear down the walls and reconcile our differences.” Newsom replied, “Divorce is not an option.” –The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item
