Opinion | China's business partners give lessons to U.S. on benefits of cooperation

By Augustus K. Yeung

INTRODUCTION

With its two political parties closely united to sock it to China, Washington these days is looking like the ancient Roman Coliseum, where the crowd gathered for one single cruel and destructive purpose, whatever that was. Beijing is now feeling the pinch whenever "China issues" are discussed in the US capital.

And it's not just the Chinese, Asian Americans are also feeling the backlash of being discriminated in a society that used to promise the "American dream".

How strange?! A country that was built by new immigrants, that encourages free trade and that extols "democratic" values has now become paranoid.

How sad, when the two super economic powers should be cooperating to tackle the world's more pressing problems ranging from food security to climate change, etc., or even the co-building of an Asian era?!

Instead, Washington is steeped in a concerted smear campaign against China, which has had chosen communism to discipline, to unite and to manage the impoverished nation's huge population that had traditionally been lopsidedly family-oriented rather than nation-building.

The United States of America has now unfortunately swung to the other side of the pendulum, neglecting many helpless senior family members and single-parent families.

Read the following excerpt from the editorial, China Daily; you'll share the feeling of helplessness so created by Western media and politicians who obviously do not understand modern China, its history, and the people's hardships and humanity.

Amid business leaders coming to China, the press spread rumors: "Foreign companies are disserting China…"

The global public sphere is rife with narratives about an "exodus" of foreign companies from China, claiming they are leaving en masse.

Things, though, are different in the real world. Unlike Western governments, which have just begun to come to terms with the impossibility of an overall "decoupling" from China and are now shifting toward severing ties in specific areas, early bird multinational corporations seem to be clear minded about the cost of such politization of normal business relations.

The politically motivated nature of the bid to reshape supply chains is revealed by "de-risking", a term which tarnishes any ties with China as being risk laden.

"Some in the West may detest their countries' politicians and business executives heading to China. But that is how today's world works – countries and businesses are too deeply interwoven to not engage with one another."

"DE risking [a term first used by Ursula von de Layan, the EU President] may be in vogue as the latest ingredient of political correctness in the West, and as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, companies cannot rely too heavily on specific suppliers or markets. But that is because links may be broken by such unanticipated events – not because there are inherent risks in having business links with a particular country."

Business decision-making may become a formula for self-inflicted damage – once it is hijacked by geopolitical calculations.

Some Westerners seem unable to control their anti-China hysteria.

As always, the business world appears to be more sensible about what economic interdependence and its win-win potentials mean

At the JPMorgan Global China Summit in Shanghai, JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said the United States' disputes with China over security and trade are "resolvable".

Like many Chinese counterparts, he highlighted the need for serious communication. "You're not going to fix these things if you are just sitting across the Pacific yelling at each other. So, I'm hoping we have real engagement," he said.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, too, highlighted the interconnectedness of the two economies. "The interests of the United States and China are intertwined like conjoined twins," Musk said in a recent meeting with a senior Chinese official in one of his high-profile visits.

In what is something of a slap in the face for those Western politicians who have been calling for "decoupling" many of the visiting Western business leaders, including Dimon and Musk, have chosen to expand their business presence in the Chinese market.

Not only private capitalists, but also the US Treasury Department is wisely aware of the increasing necessity for the two economies to sustain proper collaboration.

Echoing Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's warning against the "decoupling" of the Chinese and US economies, Assistant Secretary Elizabeth Rosenberg reportedly told a Senate banking committee hearing that her department would "seek expanded engagement" with China to work through the difficult issues her country faces.

"That's a more realistic appraisal of what the two countries need."

Concluded the editorial, China Daily.

CONCLUSION

The 911-incident exposed the fault lines of the United States; Many American tourists were concealing their identities, telling people that they were "Canadians".

Since the Trump-inspired Capitol upheaval, the Biden administration has been severely compromised by the specter of Trumpism.

Two mistakes were made: The Cabinet foolishly decided to take down the meteoric survey-balloon; Blinken, the Secretary of State unilaterally cancelled his visit to Beijing.

Both mistakes could have been profitably turned around, and managed to enhance the president's leadership, checkmating Trump and company's anti-China hysteria, winning Beijing's respect and trust.

Despite, President Biden in Hiroshima said, "I saw a thaw…" amid the plummeting Sino-US relations.

He instructed Lloyd Austin, the chief of Defense Ministry to meet his Chinese counterpart. The press reportedly said Austin was snubbed – for being a warmonger.

And now there were two top American officials visiting China: Kritenbrink, the most senior US diplomat to visit China in months, and Sara Beran, the senior security official for the Chinese mainland and Taiwan island affairs, both were given "cold shoulders".

In stark contrast, JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon and Tesla CEO Elon Musk were given lavish VIP treatments in China. Why?

If Lloyd Austin were an insightful military leader, he should have handled the balloon-incident peacefully.

It's an American military blunder – followed by Blinken's cancelling of the visit – culminating in a "double-fault", to the disappointment of both the U.S. business community and the Beijing leadership.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

 

Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:

Opinion | No more meetings, no more talks on the phone with chief Lloyd Austin

Opinion | How far can Beijing's mediation go when some believe it's 'mission impossible'