Home / Opinion

    This could be a Sino-American century

    By Harvey Dzodin (China Daily)

    Updated: 2015-09-03 08:06:30

    This could be a Sino-American century

    US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping rest during a tour at the Annenberg Retreat, California, June 8, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

    Seizing upon China's recent economic turbulence like sharks that have smelled blood, hypo-critical Republican presidential candidates are circling President Xi Jinping's state visit to the US this month, making a successful negotiation with US President Barack Obama less likely.

    But for China's recent economic setbacks, these demagogues would still be tripping over each other in a race to the bottom on the immigration issue led by the buffoon in a bouffant. They call to mind what a disgraced US vice-president (Spiro Agnew) of a disgraced president (Richard Nixon) once said: a bunch of "nattering nabobs of negativism".

    Former presidential candidate and ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, rightly described our countries being in "the most complex and challenging relationship of the 21st century".We are the best of "frenemies" and will remain so. However, unlike all the already contentious bilateral issues, such as cyberspying, island disputes and human rights, for which expectations for progress are limited, the economic events of recent weeks do present added impetus to one item on the agenda whose negotiation has bogged down, and should and can be resuscitated: the Bilateral Investment Treaty.

    Most BITs are generally limited to adjudicating routine investor disputes. But China has gone on record to negotiate the BIT with "high standards", indicating that it will include all stages of investment and all sectors. This is the first time China has agreed to do so with any country.

    The US would benefit from increased access to the Chinese market, particularly in the service sector where it maintains a competitive advantage. It would also encourage greater investment from the Chinese side.

    China would benefit from more consistent treatment of its investors in the US in addition to access to US workplace productivity tools and technologies inside China to improve its economic efficiency. The stability of the Chinese economy and stock market would result from lower volatility because of a higher ratio of more savvy institutional investors, as well as from advanced risk management techniques.

    According to US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the agreement could, for the first time, include all phases of investment, including market access, and sectors of the Chinese economy (except for limited negotiated exceptions).

    Lew said: "A high standard US-China BIT is a priority for the United States and is critical to leveling the playing field for American workers and businesses. A successful BIT negotiation would open up China's highly restrictive system to foreign investment and help create a wide range of opportunities for US firms to participate in the Chinese market...including greater market access, removal of investment barriers, protections against technology transfer, and increased transparency."

    China's Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng has rightly said:"..investment is an important area of China-US economic cooperation. It is a mutual concern of both parties, and both parties need to have creative thinking in order to create convenient conditions for the mutually beneficial cooperation between businesses of the two countries."

    Unfortunately, the US is balking because the so-called negative list of Chinese exclusions is far from limited. The talks appear to have screeched to a halt. Perhaps the Xi-Obama summit can revive them.

    Regrettably, there are two caveats. In the heat (read: hot air) of the presidential primary season, ratification by the US Senate by the required two-thirds majority is impossible. It may not be so later depending on the makeup of the White House and Senate in 2017. And there are news reports that the US is poised to take draconian measures to stop Chinese cyberspying, including economic sanctions. If this occurs, the BIT may well go into the deep freeze, if not the scrapheap of history.

    Few debate that the 19th century was the British century and that the 20th century was the American century. A spirited albeit not always objective debate surrounds whether our 21st century will be Chinese or American. While, as leading powers we will always have disagreements and remain "frenemies", there is enough of an optimist in me to imagine that this could be the Sino-American century, a unique bi-national cooperation of partners that sometimes agree to disagree.

    The author is a senior adviser to Tsinghua University and former director and vice-president of ABC Television in New York.

    (China Daily 09/03/2015 page9)

     
    ...
    久久久久亚洲AV无码专区网站| 亚洲va中文字幕无码| 熟妇人妻系列av无码一区二区| 久久久91人妻无码精品蜜桃HD| 国产AV无码专区亚洲AWWW| 中文字幕 亚洲 有码 在线| 亚洲精品无码专区久久久 | 无码一区二区三区视频| 中文字幕av在线| 亚洲成av人片在线观看天堂无码| 亚洲AV无码国产精品色午友在线| 中文字幕在线免费观看| 中文字幕乱码人在线视频1区| 高清无码在线视频| 日韩精品无码一本二本三本| 久久AV无码精品人妻糸列| 亚洲日产无码中文字幕| 中国少妇无码专区| 亚洲精品无码成人片在线观看| 狠狠精品干练久久久无码中文字幕| 一本加勒比HEZYO无码资源网| 日韩中文字幕电影| 日韩精品一区二区三区中文| 亚洲.欧美.中文字幕在线观看| 久99久无码精品视频免费播放| 国精品无码一区二区三区在线 | 无码国产精成人午夜视频一区二区| 十八禁视频在线观看免费无码无遮挡骂过 | 无码人妻少妇久久中文字幕| 十八禁视频在线观看免费无码无遮挡骂过| 中文精品久久久久国产网址| 亚洲无av在线中文字幕| 制服丝袜人妻中文字幕在线| AV色欲无码人妻中文字幕| 久久中文字幕精品| 中文字幕人妻中文AV不卡专区| 亚洲日韩精品无码专区网站| 中文字幕网伦射乱中文| 在线中文字幕视频| 无码人妻精品一区二区蜜桃网站| а中文在线天堂|