2024.01.08
January 6, 2024, GVI and Pax sapiens organized a seminar on China-US economic and trade relations, discussing in detail issues of the economic situation and the investment environment of China and the United States, as well as the bilateral trade exchanges.
Participants talked about how the COVID-19 pandemic, great power contests, and geopolitics have greatly affected the multinational corporations' assessment of the business environment and the interactions between the U.S. and Chinese business communities. U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) in China has decreased significantly. A slew of decoupling moves, like the issuance of U.S. investment restrictions on China, have also led China to reduce its dependence on the U.S. high-tech industry and turn to expand its internal circulation and localization.
"Investors are extremely realistic and predictable and the orientation of economic policy has a decisive influence on them. As soon as they realize they are at the beginning of a quagmire, they will pull out immediately," says Marcel Arsenault, President of his foundation Paxsapiens and also Founder and President of Real Capital Solutions, a US-based real estate company.
Representatives on the American side also pointed out that the impact of the industrial policy was one factor; the growing maturity of the Chinese market was another for foreign companies to pull profits out of China. This meant that these companies were able to integrate their operations in China into their global business.
In addition, representatives from both China and the U.S. unanimously expressed their hope that the China-US economic and trade relationship will maintain its vitality and resilience and that both countries should strive to minimize the influence of political factors and improve the overall relations by adjusting their guiding policies and advocating open innovation to revamp the economic and financial ecosystems and boost the trade relations.
Marcel Arsenault thinks that as the world's two largest economies, China and the US must think about how to create a world that can bring more wealth to human society.
The seminar was hosted by Li Xinyu, Vice Chairman of GVI, and participated by Marcel Arsenault, President of PAX sapiens, Conor Seyle, Vice President of PAX sapiens, Eric Richardson, Program Officer of PAX sapiens in China, Ma Xiaoye, Member of Academic Committee of GVI, Pan Yuanyuan, Associate Researcher of Institute of World Politics and Economy of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences(CASS), Lihong Wang, Government and Regulatory Affairs Officer at IBM, Xiongshan Cai, Vice President of Kuaishou, and Joyce Jiao, Director of Corporate Affairs at Mead Johnson (China).