China’s response to the US on trade is like “a tai chi approach”

“I think China’s responses have so far been pretty good. Firmness but calm. You don’t want to be the other person shouting when someone is shouting at you. It’s a kind of tai chi approach,” said David Mahon, managing director at Mahon China Investment Management Ltd.

His comments came after a series of actions taken by the US and China to increase trade tariffs on each other. He refuted the argument that China is robbing jobs from American workers.

“American companies have been moving business away from its shores since the end of the Second World War. Think about the huge moves to places like Korea and Japan in the 50s and 60s,” Mahon said.

He also mentioned market openness, saying this is “an area that China needs to think about very carefully and to initiate, not be pushed, to actually consider where it can prudently open the financial sector, maybe in something as extreme as the telecommunications sector.”

Lu Xiankun, Emeritus Professor at the University of International Business and Economics, and at Wuhan University, said China and the US need a soundboard, a predictable framework in which the two countries could interact over the long term.

“The ideal ways would be a multilateral platform through WTO negotiations, which have, for the moment, stalled for many reasons. China and the US SED dialogue [Sino-US Strategic Economic Dialogue] has been discontinued,” he said. He suggested the two countries should use other platforms, such as G20 and APEC, to work together in opening the market further to each other.

(CGTN)