Chair Rajesh Subramaniam,
President Sean Stein,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends,

Good evening!

It gives me great pleasure to join you at the annual USCBC Gala. The past six months have been quite tough. Still, the USCBC has kept going and run a strong leg under the leadership of Chair Subramaniam and President Stein. Chair Subramaniam participated in President Xi Jinping’s meeting with representatives of the international business community in Beijing, and President Stein led a US business delegation to China. The Council has built more bridges of exchanges and partnership, and written new chapters of win-win cooperation.

The theme of the Gala this year is “Seeking a New Path for U.S.-China Relations”. Underlying it are both concerns and expectations for China-U.S. economic and trade relations. Let me share with you three thoughts on this.

First, mutual benefit has all along been the defining feature of China-U.S. economic cooperation, which has grown from small to large and keeps developing. Both our countries and the world have benefited. Doing business is about give and take based on complementarity and mutual consent. If it is true that one party has been ripped off while the other has reaped all the benefits, how could our trade have come such a long way and lasted till today?

Currently, China is the US’s second-largest source of imports. Affordable, high-quality Chinese goods have enriched American supermarket shelves, helped to ease inflation in the country, and saved money for ordinary American people.

China is also the US’s third-largest export destination. About 50% of the soybeans, 30% of the cotton, 17% of the integrated circuits, and 10% of the coal, petroleum gas and medical devices that the U.S. exports are sold to China, directly supporting more than 860,000 jobs across the U.S.

Meanwhile, China is the US’s top source of trade surplus in services. The number last year exceeded 27 billion US dollars.

Besides, the annual sales revenue of American companies in China was over 400 billion US dollars higher than those of Chinese companies here. The price of iPhone in the U.S. is around 1,000 US dollars. For every iPhone sold, only less than 2% of the added value would stay in China. So you can easily see how much the U.S. has gained from trade with China.

China-U.S. economic cooperation is a two-way street, not a zero-sum game. Running a trade deficit does not necessarily mean one is at a disadvantage. We cannot focus solely on the goods trade, but ignore the huge surplus in services trade, the sales revenue of American companies in the Chinese market, the tremendous environmental and resource costs China has paid, or the fact that the Chinese people have chosen to spend much of the trade gains buying a large amount of US treasury bonds. So when we look at the whole picture, we will see that the benefits our two countries have taken from bilateral trade are generally balanced. Any selective reading of the statistics would be misleading.

China never seeks a trade surplus. Our foreign trade, once accounting for over 60% of the total GDP in the early 2000s, now takes up only about 30%. The current account surplus is about 2% of the GDP, down from nearly 10% in 2007. We are willing to buy more from the U.S. Unfortunately, the US side has imposed strict restrictions on the export of its most competitive products such as semiconductors, and shut the door on Chinese enterprises, buyers, tourists and students who want to invest and spend in the U.S. If one is reluctant to sell others what they want, how can it ever get its deficit reduced by exporting only products like soybeans and beef?

Second, as global economic growth remains sluggish and each country is addressing its own challenge, cooperation is the only way out, while protectionism is no better than drinking poison to quench thirst.

Just as water cannot be cut off, it is unrealistic to try to block the flow of capital, technology and talents in a globalized world. If any country builds up barriers, these resources will naturally flow elsewhere.

In the first five months of this year, China-U.S. trade dropped by 8% year-over-year, while China’s trade with ASEAN and EU countries grew 9% and 3% respectively. So “a small yard with high fences” cannot stop flowers outside from blossoming, and “a big yard with an iron curtain” will only motivate China to pursue self-reliance at a faster pace. I know many friends here are worried that you may end up losing the Chinese market and seeing your R&D slowed down. Your concerns should be heeded.

I believe many of you are familiar with how the trade war in the 1930s accelerated the Great Depression. If all countries resort to a beggar-thy-neighbor approach and weaponize their market, industrial capacity, technology and even visa policy, the world would regress to a jungle where might is right and rules and commitments are no longer kept. The current tariff war has destabilized global industrial and supply chains, heightened risks of recession, and sent the international capital market on a wild roller-coaster ride. IMF has projected the global economy will grow just 2.8% this year, and lowered its US growth forecast by 0.9 percentage points. Is this really what people here want to see?

Tariff wars have no winners. Confrontation and conflict should not be an option. Dialogue and consultation are the right solution. When our two countries, as the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 economies, returned to the negotiating table recently, the business communities in both countries and the whole world breathed a great sigh of relief. The pressing priority is to honor words with actions, faithfully implement and safeguard the hard-won outcomes, and also make better use of the China-U.S. economic and trade consultation mechanism, to enhance consensus, reduce misunderstanding and strengthen cooperation. Frankly speaking, the current US tariffs on China are still unreasonably high, will severely constrain and undercut bilateral trade, and should be removed completely.

Third, China’s development is an opportunity for the world. Believing in China is believing in a better tomorrow, and investing in China is investing in the future.

Our confidence comes from China’s development trend. In the first quarter, China’s GDP grew 5.4% year-over-year, continuing to rank among the top in major economies. In the first five months, our value-added industrial output, Index of Service Production and total retail sales of consumer goods all expanded over 5%. The three engines of growth — investment, consumption and export — are running at full steam.

Our confidence comes from China’s innovation momentum. The open-source DeepSeek and the video game Black Myth: Wukong have taken the world by storm. Labubu toys and Insta360 panoramic cameras have become a global sensation. In the first five months, China’s output of electric vehicles, industrial robots and solar cells grew 41%, 32% and 18% respectively. New business forms and models such as the ice-and-snow economy, the silver economy and the low-altitude economy keep booming.

Our confidence comes from China’s internal impetus. China has the world’s most complete industrial system, most convenient infrastructure, most abundant factor endowments, most diverse application scenarios, and most competitive innovation eco-system. With more than 5 million STEM graduates every year, our demographic dividend is turning into talent dividend, “Made in China” is shifting toward “Smart Manufacturing in China”, and the world’s factory is evolving into a global innovation hub.

Just imagine: when China’s urbanization rate grows from the current 67% to above 80%, its household consumption’s share of GDP rises from 36% to above 60%, its middle-income population expands from 400 to 800 million, and its consumers pursue higher-quality products and services, how much more market potential will be unlocked!

Our confidence also comes from China’s development strategy and macro policy. While globalization is facing growing headwinds, China is steadily expanding institutional opening up, further shortening the negative list for foreign investment and lowering the threshold of market access, broadening trials to open sectors such as telecommunications, medical services, and education, and lifting the foreign ownership cap on sectors including internet service providers and certain information services.

While the tariff war keeps heating up, China is giving all least developed countries having diplomatic relations with it zero-tariff treatment for 100% tariff lines, to boost prosperity and development for all.

While protectionism is on the rise, China is welcoming international investors with open arms. It has rolled out the 2025 Action Plan for Stabilizing Foreign Investment, and expanded the Catalogue of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment. The new policy incentives also cover frontier areas such as high-end manufacturing and digital economy, and more efforts are being taken to foster a market-oriented, law-based and world-class business environment.

While the international landscape turns more turbulent and fluid, China is resolutely upholding the international system with the UN at its core, the international order underpinned by international law, the basic norms of international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the WTO-centered multilateral trading system, so as to inject more certainty and constructive energy into the world.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The China-U.S. relationship is now at a critical juncture. Should we choose win-win cooperation, or a lose-lose scenario? Our choice today will shape the direction we take tomorrow. To navigate the rough waters, we need our two heads of state to take the helm. The phone call between President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump on June 5 has once again charted the course for bilateral relations. We need to follow the strategic guidance of our heads of state, faithfully follow through on their important consensus reached during the call, adhere to dialogue and cooperation as the right direction, and enhance communication in such fields as foreign affairs, economy and trade, military, and law enforcement.

The Chinese side is sincere about this, and at the same time has its principles. China’s sovereignty, security and development interests are the red line that should not be crossed. Mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation are the principles that must be upheld. We hope the US side will work with China in the same direction, be partners rather than rivals, contribute to each other’s success rather than hurt one another, and jointly find a right way to get along in the new era.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Economic cooperation has always been a cornerstone of China-U.S. relations, the business communities have always been the backbone of our practical cooperation, and the USCBC has always been a pacesetter in bilateral economic ties. All of you here have done a remarkable job, and let me take this opportunity to salute and thank each of you for your great efforts!

I would like to encourage all of you to build on what has been achieved, both take a long view and focus on the present, lead by example, speak up for exchanges and dialogue, and take actions to facilitate mutually beneficial cooperation, so as to jointly sail the giant ship of China-U.S. relations across stormy seas and onto a steady course.

Thank you very much.