Since the beginning of this century, bilateral trade between China and the 
United States has risen rapidly, benefiting both sides. 
According to China customs statistics, China's exports to the United States 
were US$52.1 billion in 2000 and reached US$162.9 billion in 2005, an increase 
of 212 per cent. According to US customs statistics, the US exports to China 
were US$16.2 billion in 2000 and reached US$41.8 billion in 2005, an increase of 
157 per cent. Among the top 15 trade partners of the United States, US exports 
to China had the fastest increase. 
According to US statistics, China was the United States' fourth-largest trade 
partner, the fourth-largest import trade partner and the 11th-largest export 
trade partner in 2000. However, by 2005, China had become its third-largest 
trade partner, the second-largest import trade partner and the fourth-largest 
export partner, next to Canada, Mexico and Japan. China is the strategic trade 
partner of the United States, as stated by President George W. Bush on March 9 
last year. 
According to US statistics, China's export to the United States was US$243.5 
billion last year, accounting for 32 per cent of China's US$762 billion total 
exports and 14.6 per cent of US total imports. This demonstrates the fact that 
China and the United States are big markets to each other. In 1994, the US 
Department of Commerce listed China as the head of its top 10 newly emerging 
markets, which has been proven over the past 10 years. 
Like commodities, capital also needs markets and can dwindle without high 
capital profits. According to statistics, by the end of 2005, the US actual 
investments in China reached US$51 billion. This demonstrates that China has 
become a big overseas market for US capital, next to Western Europe, North, 
Central and South America, and Japan. 
China and the United States boast remarkable achievements in financial 
co-operation. By the end of November 2005, China held US$254.4 billion in US 
treasury bonds and a considerable amount of US enterprise stocks and private 
securities. By the end of 2005, China's foreign reserves reached more than 
US$810 billion, with 60 per cent of them being US capital. 
Since the beginning of 2005, the economic and trade relationship between the 
two countries, however, has encountered some trouble, as demonstrated by 
increasing conflicts and frictions. In future years, the economic and trade 
relationship between China and the United States is expected to face many 
challenges, for example: intellectual property rights, RMB exchange rate, trade 
balance, textile trade and market access in the services area. 
It must be noted that most of these are the conflicts of economic interests 
among some industrial sectors rather than the conflicts of fundamental interests 
between the two countries and they can be settled through mutual understanding 
and negotiations. Besides, these frictions are only the minor ones in the 
Sino-US economic and trade relationship and should not affect mainstream 
economic and trade co-operation between the two countries. 
The two sides should deal with any friction and dispute from a far-reaching 
perspective without intensifying the issue. Equality and mutual benefit are the 
foundations of economic and trade co-operation; complementary partners are an 
important condition for economic and trade co-operation; and friendly 
negotiation is an effective tool to settle frictions and disputes. The threat of 
sanctions and retaliation is not advisable, because it not only violates the 
multilateral trade system, but also intensifies the disputes rather than helping 
settle them. 
Trade wars can only hurt both sides and economies having close economic and 
trade ties with China and the United States. Therefore trade wars are not 
acceptable or supported by most businesspeople within the two countries. 
This has been demonstrated by the restrictions and counter-restrictions in 
the textile trade between the two countries. From June 17 to November 8 last 
year, the government delegations of China and the United States underwent seven 
rounds of hard negotiations and finally signed a memorandum of understanding 
(MOU) on the trade of textiles and apparel. 
The MOU reflects the co-operative principle of mutual understanding and 
mutual benefit, setting a good example for the settlement of frictions and 
disputes in Sino-US economic and trade relations; it is also helpful for the 
further development of Sino-US economic and trade co-operation. 
At present a relatively prominent issue is the US trade imbalance with China. 
According to China's customs statistics, China's trade surplus with the United 
States reached US$114.2 billion; while according to the statistics of the US 
Chamber of Commerce, the US trade deficit with China reached as high as US$201.6 
billion. 
The United States imports a large amount of daily necessities from China that 
are of good quality and low price and that satisfy the needs of US markets. The 
products benefit most consumers and help relieve US inflation, the adjustment of 
its industrial structure, and economic development. 
Trade deficit is a trade behaviour and should be analyzed from the 
perspective of market needs. China exported to the United States 40 or 50 
million pairs of shoes in exchange for one big Boeing 747. Therefore it should 
not be easily concluded that a developing country has trade advantages when it 
relies on the export of a large amount of labour-intensive consumer goods in 
exchange for a small amount of high-tech equipment and technology. 
In the economic and trade co-operation between China and the United States, 
trade advantage stays with the United States. Since the beginning of 1993, the 
US trade deficit has been mainly attributed to the fact that the US advantage in 
high technology has not been brought into full play. To deregulate the 
management of technology export is the way to reduce China's trade surplus. The 
initiative of reducing trade deficit with China lies in the hand of the United 
States. 
The US trade deficit is the consequence of economic globalization and the 
restructure of world industries and is the natural product of the world labour 
division. US trade deficit is a structural one and is irretrievable. 
How should we look at the issue of trade imbalance between China and the 
United States? 
First, one main feature of Sino-US trade is that most Chinese exports to the 
United States are processed products, accounting for about 70 per cent, which 
means that China only gets a small amount of processing fees. 
Take the Barbie doll for example. One Barbie doll is sold at US$9.99, but 
only costs US$2 when imported from China. Its raw materials come from the Middle 
East and are made into semi-products in Taiwan, the wigs are made in Japan, and 
the packing materials are provided by the United States the total of these three 
parts makes up US$1. Transportation and management costs US$0.65, and the 
Chinese mainland is left with only US$0.35 for processing. In light of the rule 
of origin, these US$2 are put into China's export to the United States. 
Obviously it cannot tell the real case of the trade between the two countries. 
Second, 70 per cent of China's foreign investments are from East Asia. For 
many years, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the 
Philippines and China's Taiwan have shifted their former trade surplus products 
to the Chinese mainland, thus causing the "shift of trade imbalance." So, the 
products made by these co-operative or 100 per cent overseas-owned enterprises 
are actually Made in Asia instead of Made in China, and China's trade surplus is 
shared by the above countries and region rather than owned by China alone. 
According to US customs statistics, the US imports from the above countries 
and region in 2000 were US$302.3 billion, while in 2005 the imports did not 
increase but fell to US$294.7 billion by 2.5 per cent. During the same period, 
its imports from China jumped to US$243.5 billion from US$100 billion, an 
increase of 140 per cent. 
According to Chinese customs statistics, China's trade surplus with the 
United States was US$114.2 billion in 2005, but it had a trade deficit of US$140 
billion with the above countries and region. 
In this sense, China is an Asian processing centre. As Li Deshui, former 
director of the National Bureau of Statistics, said, China's trade surplus with 
the United States and Europe is in fact a passer-by, a reality of having more 
flowers than fruits. 
Third, the economic and trade relationship between China and the United 
States is reflected in four areas: commodity trade, technology trade, service 
trade and mutual investment. The trade deficit generally refers to that of 
commodity trade. 
The US advantage in its trade lies in the past three areas. By the end of 
2005, the actual investment in China by US enterprises was US$51.1 billion, with 
49,000 businesses set up. Most of the products made by these enterprises are 
sold in the Chinese market, with only a small portion of them sold to the US 
market. 
Take GM and Motorola for example. There is a strong demand for their cars and 
mobile phones made in China, which, as a matter of fact, replace China's import 
of cars and mobile phones from the United States. These US enterprises enlarge 
their investments with the profits made in China and remit the remainder to the 
United States, which in fact makes up part of the US trade deficit. 
According to incomplete statistics from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, in 
2004 US-owned firms' sales in China reached as high as US$75 billion, which can 
offset 46 per cent of the US$162 billion US trade deficit with China that year. 
During the five years from 2001 to 2005, China's total imports were US$2.173 
trillion. During the next five years from 2006 to 2010, China is expected to 
have imports worth US$4 trillion. This really is a big newly emerging market. 
As long as the Bush administration can greatly deregulate export management 
with China like the Reagan administration did, the US large- and medium-sized 
enterprises will have the ability and the possibility to capture more shares in 
China's rapidly growing new market, and China will surely become a big market 
for US exports. 
The industrial structures of China and the United States can strongly 
complement each other, which guarantees a bright future and greater development 
for broad economic and trade co-operation between the two nations. 
The combination of US capital, technology and management experience with 
China's huge market, low-cost labour and resources will surely bring great 
benefits to the economic development of both countries. 
China's modernization needs a large amount of US capital, technology and 
equipment, which can push and promote US economic development. Therefore, 
economic and trade co-operation between China and the United States is mutually 
beneficial and a win-win situation with bright prospects. 
Zhou Shijian is the standing councillor of China American Studies and 
Wang Lijun is a lecturer at the Capital University of Economics and 
Business. 
(China Daily 04/18/2006 page4)