CIFTIS highlights in Beijing. Photos: Li Hao/GT

Foreign company executives, industry players and experts attending the 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), the world's largest services trade fair, are saying that decoupling is bad for the global economy, and that China's relationship with the rest of the world is one that is "symbiotic." They urged joint efforts in strengthening the bonds of mutually beneficial relations, rather than weakening them.

The 2023 CIFTIS, one of the top three national-level trade shows on par with the Canton Fair and the China International Import Expo, has attracted more than 2,400 domestic and foreign companies to attend, with more than 500 world-leading companies.

On the sidelines of the fair as well as at CIFTIS-related seminars, the foreign business community rejected the concept of decoupling, and called for deepened cooperation among the countries of the world to achieve win-win outcomes as the global economy makes a difficult recovery following the pandemic.

Their voices come as new research papers in the US call into question whether the US has actually lessened its reliance on China, and show that years of US efforts pushing for decoupling have increased the cost of living of Americans, according to US media reports.

Denis Simon, president of the Alliance of Global Talent Organizations, told the Global Times at a CIFTIS sub-forum hosted by the Center for China and Globalization that the reality is that the world is going to recognize that China is a necessary engine for global growth.

"If the Chinese economy stagnates, that's not only not good for China, it's not good for the world. Everyone now, I think you see from the foreign investment, is recognizing there is a symbiotic relationship between China and the rest of the world," Simon said.

"There's a level of interdependence that they all must acknowledge, and so it becomes a win-win outcome," noted Simon.

"It is normal that the global value chain sees a little bit of reshaping considering the competitive advantages of countries," Gianpaolo Bruno, trade commissioner with the Italian Trade Agency, told the Global Times.

"There will be a little bit of a slight, slow progress in the internationalization process, given the fact that we have many problems in the world nowadays, but there won't be a revolution with respect to the world that we have seen in the past decades, that has seen China emerge as a great economic power for the benefit of everybody in the world," Bruno said.

"There's a lot of information in the market that doesn't reflect the real situation. The recognition of China needs to be more fact-based, and that's much more positive than is currently shown," Thilo Ketterer, partner of Rödl & Partner Management Consulting (Shanghai) Co, told the Global Times.

"We had a really globalized world before the pandemic. It's not only how China can open [up its market]. The Western countries need to be open [as well]," Ketterer noted.

Others paid tribute to the existing strong trade relationships and expressed intentions to deepen them.

The Netherlands and Belgium benefited greatly from trade with China because they have Europe's two largest ports - Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Antwerp in Belgium - Tom Hoogendijk, President of the Benelux Chamber of Commerce in China, told the Global Times.

"That's why trade is really in the DNA of the Benelux and we hope that there will be more trade coming from Europe to China," said Hoogendijk.

China has used the platform of the CIFTIS to show its determination to further open up its market and engage in deeper cooperation with the world, pledging to expand the globally oriented network of high-standard free trade areas, and actively engage in negotiations on the negative list for trade in services and investment. 

Multiple US officials have recently said that the US has no intention of containing China's development and does not seek to decouple from China. 

"We hope that the US can work with China to put into practice its commitment of not seeking a decoupling from China and create a favorable environment for the sound development of China-US economic and trade ties," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on August 30.