China’s President Xi Jinping used conciliatory tones at a meeting with top US business leaders.
China’s President Xi Jinping called for further cooperation between his country and the United States at a meeting with top business leaders in Beijing. The United States and China are respectively the first and second largest economies in the world, making up almost one-third of the global GDP.
Relations between the United States and China soured over the years, as Beijing began questioning American dominance over world trade. China, the world’s largest exporter, was also the target of severe US sanctions under the Trump and Biden administrations.
Geopolitically, the US and China are the world’s most dangerous rivals. Beijing’s claims over the South China Sea, India, and, most importantly, Taiwan have escalated tensions with Washington over the last decade.
The rivalry between the US and China, both nuclear powers, never escalated to the point of rupture. Both countries always took steps to ensure a line of dialogue, however thin that may be.
US President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met several times over the last few years, most recently at an annual summary in San Francisco.
“Sino-U.S. relations are one of the most important bilateral relations in the world,” Xi said at Wednesday’s meeting. “Whether China and the United States cooperate or confront each other has a bearing on the well-being of the two peoples and the future and destiny of mankind,” he added.
Soothing tones
The US-China rapprochement is taking place amid increasing global tension. As war keeps raging in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, both countries have important reasons to consider soothing tensions.
The United States is currently stretched on several fronts and could ill afford another Asian war.
Conversely, China is on the cusp of its most severe housing crisis in history and its post-Covid economic growth disappointed expectations. Slowing its exports to the world’s largest economy could worsen an already critical situation.
At Wednesday’s summit, Xi met with top CEOs the likes of Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, Fedex’s Raj Subramaniam, and Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon.
The council “stressed the importance of rebalancing China’s economy by increasing consumption there and encouraged the government to further address longstanding concerns with cross-border data flows, government procurement, better protection of intellectual property rights, and improved regulatory transparency and predictability,” according to a following statement.
For its part, Xi reminded the council that China overcame significantly worse challenges and is neither at its collapse point nor its peak.
Xi also knows many US-based firms rely on China for a large share of their global turnovers. These firms include Apple, Nvidia, and Qualcomm.
