China US Photo: GT

The US-initiated trade war against China further failed in 2021, while economic ties between China and the US did not see any substantial progress over the past year, He Weiwen, a former senior trade official and an executive council member of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies, said at the Global Times Annual Forum on Saturday. 

The forum, themed "The World looks for a turnaround as China moves on," was held in Beijing and attended by many distinguished Chinese scholars on international relations. 

During the panel discussion on future conflicts between China and the US, He said economics and politics are inseparable and it is unlikely that China-US economic and trade relations will not see improvement in the current context. 

"In 2021, although the US has spoken a lot of good words about China-US trade and economic relations, improvement depends on three conditions:  the US must not block China's development; it must not attack China's system; it must remove high tariffs, unilateral sanctions and the technology blockade against China," He noted. 

"In fact, the US has done none of these."

2021 marks the further failure of the US' initiated trade war against China. In the first 11 months of 2021, bilateral trade between China and the US has seen surprising growth and is expected to exceed $750 billion for the entire year, an increase of more than $100 billion from 2018. Among them, China's exports to the US continued to expand, and 92 percent of the tariffs were paid by the US itself.

China and the US have entered a strategic economic stalemate phase and this will continue, He said. Cooperation between China and the US at the local level and at the business level will be strengthened and the bilateral trade volume of 2022 may exceed that of 2021.

He stressed that China-US trade growth cannot be attributed to the shift in Washington's policy on China. 

"We should focus on developing economic and trade relations with the vast majority of local enterprises in the US as support." 

Global Times