Chinese enterprises continue to grow business in US in 2015

NEW YORK -- The relationship between Chinese and US economies continued to grow in 2015, with China surpassing Canada to become the US's largest trading partner in November, the China General Chamber of Commerce-USA (CGCC) said Tuesday.

More than 800,000 American jobs depend on goods and services sold to China, the CGCC said in the 2015 White Paper, in a notable sign that trade relations with China helped boost the US economy and local jobs market.

Meanwhile, Chinese direct investment in the United States in 2015 will likely have exceeded the 10 billion US dollars benchmark for the third year since 2013, totaling nearly 60 billion dollars since 2000, said the CGCC, the largest non-profit organization representing Chinese enterprises in the United States.

"The results of this year reflected the confidence of Chinese enterprises to continue growing their business in the US market," said Chen Xu, chairman of CGCC, at the launching of the White Paper.

"The past 2015 witnessed a successful development of China-US trade and economic relationship. Bilateral trade volume reached over 558 billion US dollars. Although world trade is sluggish, China-US trade managed to increase," said Zhu Hong, minister for commercial affairs at the Chinese Embassy to the United State.

"On the investment front, more and more Chinese executives and entrepreneurs are planning to do businesses in the US By 2015, there are more than 2,000 Chinese firms settling in the US with a total investment of nearly 60 billion dollars," Zhu added.

Chinese companies were benefiting from economic growth in the United States, the White Paper said, citing that 60 percent of respondents to the CGCC survey noted that their annual revenues increased in 2014.

"To gain US market share" continued to be the top business objective for Chinese enterprises, according to the Annual Business Survey Report on Chinese enterprises in the US released by the CGCC Tuesday.

Respondents paid rising attention to acquiring advanced management concept and skills. About 91 percent of respondents expected revenue increase in the next three to five years, while 52 percent of respondents reinvest their US profits into the country.

The United States was attracting a growing number of Chinese companies due to its outstanding business environment, policies that promote innovation, business standards, and business accountability, the White Paper said.

However, the Chinese companies felt the US market was impacted negatively by controversial government practices, especially tax regulations and trade remedies, including antidumping and countervailing investigations, it added.

Most respondents said high labor costs, cultural differences, and slow economic growth, among others, have posed increasing challenges to future growth.

Based on current economic trend, the two countries will undoubtedly witness rapidly growing capital flow, personnel and technological exchanges, and new economic partnership, the CGCC chairman said.