China's economic rise benefits midwestern US companies: industry leader

NEW YORK - China's economic rise over the past decades has benefited many companies in midwestern United States, Leo Chan, executive director of the Ohio-based Midwest USA Chinese Chamber of Commerce, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

China's success in poverty alleviation and its massive middle class have brought huge opportunities for business cooperation, said Chan, whose organization boasts around 200 members from the Midwest that all have economic ties with China.

"We're glad to see Chinese achievement in poverty alleviation, education and healthcare in the last decades and we wish more could be done in this regard in 2020," he said.

"We hope more Chinese enterprises will go global and land in the United States, bringing in capital, technologies and even man power," Chan said, adding that Chinese Americans can play a more active role in deepening exchanges between the two sides.

Business cooperation between the two countries has also contributed to world peace, stability and economic development, he added.

According to Chan, local-level cooperation such as those between sister cities should be put into full play, and his organization has been promoting such economic and trade ties as well as investment.

The Midwest USA Chinese Chamber of Commerce will have a 150-sq-meter booth to promote US enterprises at the third China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, he said.

The second CIIE, held in November 2019, concluded with $71.13 billion worth of tentative deals reached for one-year purchases of goods and services, a 23-percent rise from that of the first CIIE.

"A world-class enterprise and a number of small and medium-sized enterprises on technology, food processing and others from the Midwest will join the next CIIE," he said.

Chan also called on the two countries to build a platform that could help channel limited resources into important areas like people's welfare, infrastructure and innovative social governance.