Former US commerce secretary: It's time to stop decoupling

Carlos Gutierrez, former US secretary of commerce, said some scholars, intellectuals, strategists, and politicians are claiming that a big power confrontation between China and the US was inevitable. "I believe we should try to prove them wrong," he said at the second Fudan-Harvard China-US Youth Leaders Dialogue on August 17.

He pointed out that the foreign direct investment between China and the US was declining. "The numbers are going in the wrong direction," he added.

Taking the bilateral personnel exchanges as an example, he said the figure was also falling in comparison with the past number. "Decoupling is taking place, and now is the time to stop it," he said.

The direction is not good for anyone, so the two sides must make an effort to achieve peaceful coexistence. For how to have a positive relationship, Carlos said there was a dire need to restore dialogue considering the tremendous amount of strategic mistrust. Concurrently, it's imperative to restore contact between Chinese and Americans, between group tourism and on the student level, both on the governmental side and on the regular citizens' side. It's true that China and the US have different historical context, cultures and values, Carlos said. "We need to respect those differences, but that can only be achieved by people reaching out to people," he said.

China and the US can collaborate in a host of fields. Climate change, handling of future pandemics, managing future natural disasters, and space exploration are the good direction for cooperation. "We can collaborate with diplomacy to avoid future confrontations around the world among other countries," Carlos said.

There's a hope that China and the US can usher in a new era of friendship, respect, collaboration, peace and prosperity. Carlos said that's what's best for the world and it would be our gift to mankind.