Europe recently failed to ratify the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), signaling hesitations in its trade relationship with Beijing. Instead Europe aligned itself with Washington’s efforts to counter China’s global influence.

Katherine Tai’s appointment as the top economic negotiator for the U.S. may signal America’s overall direction in trade relations with China, but Tai’s actions have yet to reveal clear steps forward.

Call between Liu He and Katherine Tai on trade was candid.

The general setting, highlights and observations in 2021 AmCham White Paper.

Chinese and U.S. interests are profoundly intertwined. Some 85 percent of the members of the American Chamber of Commerce in China have no plan to relocate. In fact, most plan to increase their investment, highlighting the importance of China-U.S. cooperation.

China made headway with CPTPP, but had setback on trade pact with Europe.

U.S.-China trade relationship continues to prove dynamic.

Economic reporting about China focuses far too much on total GDP and not enough on per capita GDP, which is the more revealing indicator. And this skewed coverage has important implications, because the two indicators paint significantly different pictures of China’s current economic and political situation. They also focus our attention on different issues.

2020 was an unprecedented year for the American business community due to twin pressures from a deteriorating US-China bilateral relationship and the very real human and economic challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. China’s success at controlling COVID-19 domestically is commendable and has played a large part in ensuring our member companies were largely able to resume regular operations in China by the middle of Q2 of this year. By the year’s end China’s economy had reported GDP growth of 2.3 percent, the only major economy in the world to do so.

It took China just 21 years to turn from an aging society to a deeply aging one, compared with 100 years for Europe. To get from deeply aging to ultra-aging, China will require only 11 years. The trend will have a profound impact on society.