More efforts needed to restore Sino-US ties

Reassessing strategy

"The gesture shows that America has been reassessing its detrimental China strategy," He Yun said. After all, regardless of whether the US wants it or not, China has already become the world's top manufacturing country, and it's impossible for the US enterprises to rearrange their locations in the short term, she said.

The US' imports from China shrank after tariffs and sanctions were introduced five years ago — the US efforts to shift trade to its allies had some results. However, trade between US allies and China is rising, "suggesting that they are often acting as packaging hubs for what, in effect, remain Chinese goods," said the British weekly The Economist.

In the past five years, the return rate of FDI in China reached 9.1 percent, and in the first half of this year, 24,000 foreign-invested firms were established in China, and investment from France, the UK and Japan in the same period went up 173 percent, 135 percent and 53 percent, respectively, according to official figures.

Kenneth Pomeranz, a professor of Modern Chinese History at the University of Chicago, said that at this point, the relationship is so bad that almost any high-level contact is a good thing; so is the establishment of more communication channels.

Diao Daming, a professor at the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China, said the trend of accelerated and positive dialogue between high-level officials of China and the US has continued since this May.

"It can be said that, at least in areas of common interest in the economic and trade fields, both the US and China now hope to avoid a worsened situation and minimize losses, and based on that, could even improve the current situation," he said.

The US attitude toward China has become quite clear: it wants a kind of selective cooperation. In certain areas where they think cooperating with China benefits the US, they will engage. In other areas where they believe working with China may impact their so-called competitiveness, they will avoid cooperation, claiming it carries risks, Diao said.

"This selective and unilateral approach is completely self-centered and presumptuous," he said. "China has always emphasized mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation. But the US tries to unilaterally determine how to cooperate and in which areas to cooperate, which is a complete lack of mutual respect."

Diao said that the US' unilateral actions driven by a pursuit of its own maximum interests, are the main reasons for the current state of Sino-US relations. Even when the US emphasizes cooperation, it is not an equal and mutually respectful partnership that will lead to a win-win outcome.

Edward Tse, founder and CEO of Gao Feng Advisory Company, said that despite the US government's efforts to decouple from China in recent years, big US companies have not fully followed this strategy, largely due to the importance of the Chinese market and their existing investments in the country.

After the COVID-19 pandemic this year, entrepreneurs such as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk openly visited China, and many low-profile entrepreneurs have also come. For many multinational corporations, China is still crucial. So, even though the US government talks about decoupling from China and limiting supply chain networks to allies and friendly countries, many large companies are quietly opposing it.

Tse said the US government's attempts to rally its allies against China have also faced challenges, as there are voices both in Europe and elsewhere that are not willing to blindly align with the US in confronting China. Moreover, the rapid rise of the Global South, the strengthening of BRICS, and China's extensive relationships with Africa all demonstrate China's growing importance in the Global South.

"Therefore, I believe that after a few years, the US will realize that it cannot contain China's development and must reach some level of compromise, or at least maintain communication with China," he said.