Deriding the talk of “decoupling” of trade and economic ties between China and the US as a “lose-lose” plan, a senior Chinese official on Friday underlined that such a move was not realistic at all and neither will it bring any benefit to the two countries, nor to the world.
The economic links between China and the US is determined by the highly complementary nature of respective economic structures and the openness of the global economy, Han Wenxiu, deputy director of the Office of Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs, told a media conference of the CPC Central Committee.
In fact, those who truly want a ‘decoupling’ only represent a minor minority and those who pursue cooperation are the overwhelming majority,” he told the conference convened to flag the highlights of the just-concluded Plenum conclave of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC).
The key conclave finalised a new Five-Year Plan and the Development Plan for 2035.
Complete economic “decoupling” between China and the United States is “not realistic at all, and neither will it bring any benefit to either countries or the world”, Han emphasised.
“The complete decoupling is a lose-lose plan,” he said, replying to a question on the decoupling of trade and economic ties between the world’s top two economies.
Han noted that the China-US trade volume was up by 16 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter even with global trade hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He called upon both sides to continue to uphold banners of peace, development, cooperation and win-win outcomes and resolutely safeguard multilateralism.
We must always stand at the right side of history and proactively create an enabling international environment,” Han said.
US President Donald Trump, who is seeking a second term, has been raising the idea of separating the US and Chinese economies, also known as decoupling, suggesting that America would not lose money if the world’s two biggest economies no longer did business.
Trump has been pushing for reducing excessive reliance on China by bringing back manufacturing to the US under his ‘Make America Great Again campaign’. The ongoing trade war between US and China over the last two years — during which the two countries slapped billions of dollars of tariffs on each other — has seriously dented the trade ties between the countries.
A large number of multinational companies, including from the US, Japan and European Union, have also begun shifting their bases from China for various reasons, including higher manufacturing costs and concerns over Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues.
The large movement of supply chain out of China has made several countries, including India, open up more of their markets to attract them to set up their manufacturing bases post COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the four-day plenary session of the CPC, which ended on Thursday, discussed a work report delivered by President Xi Jinping on behalf of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, an official communique said on Thursday.
The session also adopted the CPC proposals for the formulation of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035.
The session was attended by 198 members of the CPC Central Committee and 166 alternate members of the CPC Central Committee, official media reported.
While the 14th Five-Year plan envisages a massive overhaul of the country’s domestic market to boost consumption in order to reduce China’s reliance on shrinking exports markets, the Vision 2035 visualises a long-term plan reflecting the vision of Xi, also the General Secretary of the ruling CPC.