Former US Ambassador to China, Baucus: American companies have a responsibility to help with "terrible" US China relations | Max Baucus | United States
On September 2nd, Forbes magazine website published an article titled: Former US Ambassador to China, Max Baucus, stated that companies have a responsibility to help "bad" US China relations. Former Ambassador to China, Max Baucus, recently stated that as US China relations enter a downward cycle, US companies can play an important role in stabilizing "bad" relations. Baucus served as the US Ambassador to China. He said, "If there is no strong commercial relationship between the United States and China, we will fall into real harm at the geopolitical level... The real ballast is enterprises. The two countries need each other economically. We are like conjoined babies, which is not widely known."
Baucus said that the US China relationship has been strained for over a decade, and Trump's trade policy and demonization of China have accelerated this trend. Biden's dispatch of the Secretary of Finance, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Commerce to China would be helpful. But Baucus did not have high expectations for these visits because Chinese people believed that Americans were just "talking too much" and "they did not see the United States taking real positive action.".
Baucus said, "Whoever wants to criticize China, criticize China at no cost. No congressman or state legislator criticizes China at any cost... so they do it for re-election." He said that next year's US presidential and congressional elections may stimulate the President and congressional candidates to "criticize China more.". Although the Chinese side is aware that many of the comments are driven by the politics of the US election year, there is still a cost to US China relations.
He predicted, "Over time - possibly after the 2024 election - the two countries will realize that we must cooperate with each other. China will not disappear, and the United States will not disappear... just like arranged marriages, we must find ways to adapt to each other... we need to learn how to be tolerant of each other."
On September 2nd, the Australian website "Pearl and Stimulus" published an article with the original title: "The United States' economic war against China. The United States' anti China policy is still familiar, aimed at preventing economic and technological competition from its main competitors.". During the Cold War, the technology blockade imposed by the United States on the Soviet Union was the first application of such policies. Nowadays, the United States is targeting China.
Although the United States strongly denies engaging in an economic war with China, as the saying goes, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and calls like a duck, then it is likely to be a duck. The United States is repeating its old tricks. But China is different from Japan in the 1990s. At that time, Japan relied on the United States for security, so it was obedient to the United States. Nowadays, facing American protectionism, China has greater room for maneuver.
My assessment is that the United States' attempt to contain China is not only wrong in principle, but also destined to fail in practice. China will find partners in the entire world economy to support sustained trade growth and technological progress.