China stresses win-win for Chinese, US firms

China welcomes US companies to continue expanding their investment in the country and supports the strengthening of mutually beneficial cooperation by firms from both sides, a senior government official said.

Ning Jizhe, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said the two sides can cooperate in a wide range of fields such as jointly tackling the COVID-19 epidemic and promoting global economic resurgence.

China hopes that both sides can work together on the basis of finding common ground to promote a relationship based on coordination, cooperation and stability and put China-US relations back onto the path of no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, Ning said.

The official made the remarks during a video conference on Friday with Greg Gilligan, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, and representatives from US companies like HPE, Mars, Dell, Qualcomm, and Louis Dreyfus. The NDRC revealed details of the online meeting on its official website on Tuesday.

Despite the changes in the external environment, China will stay committed to opening its doors wider to the world and creating a better business-friendly environment for foreign investors, Ning said.

During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on several issues such as China-US economic cooperation, China's economic situation and China opening wider to the outside world.

AmCham China said the Chinese government has taken timely and effective measures to prevent and control the pandemic, resume work and production and carry out international cooperation to fight the pandemic. It thanked the Chinese government for offering a series of supportive policies for enterprises.

Participating representatives said US companies have confidence in the Chinese market and will seize the opportunities brought by China's booming economy and opening-up to grow up with the country.

Despite facing challenges due to Sino-US trade friction and the globally spreading novel coronavirus pandemic, US firms in China are confident about the Chinese market, said a white paper released by AmCham China.

The report showed that 50 percent of the surveyed firms believe China's business environment has improved significantly, while more than 70 percent said they have no plans to move their supply chains out of China. Many US firms said they will expand their investment in China, the report said.

The online meeting came after Vice-Premier Liu He and senior US officials agreed to continue to promote the implementation of the phase-one trade deal between the two countries.

Zhou Maohua, an analyst at China Everbright Bank's financial market department, said the China-US economies are highly complementary and the world's two largest economies still have huge potential to expand economic and trade cooperation in many fields.

"Despite the world's complicated political and economic situation, China is committed to promoting a higher standard opening-up," said Zhou.

"A stable China-US relationship will help ease the US' economic pressure due to the outbreak and boost investors' confidence. The cooperation between the two sides will reduce production and trade costs, improve citizen well being and inject new impetus into the sluggish world economy."

Zhou's views were echoed by Pang Chaoran, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, which functions under the Ministry of Commerce. "With the help of Chinese government's effective measures to contain the pandemic, the pent-up consumption potential will be gradually released, and China will see rising demand for US products. By then, we will also see a stable growth in China-US trade.

"With China's key moves to deepen reforms and opening-up, companies from both sides and even other countries will also benefit from the better business environment."