The call message of the leader who received much attention was sent out early on the 25th.
On the morning of August 25th, Liu He, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Vice Premier of the State Council, and the Chinese leader of the China-US Comprehensive Economic Dialogue, talked with US Trade Representative Lighthizer and Secretary of the Treasury Mnuchin at an appointment. The two sides had a constructive dialogue on strengthening the coordination of the macroeconomic policies of the two countries and the implementation of the first phase of China-US economic and trade agreement. Both sides agreed to create conditions and atmosphere to continue to promote the implementation of the first phase of the China-US economic and trade agreement.
The United States also issued a message soon.
On the 24th local time, the Office of the US Trade Representative issued a statement stating that US Trade Representative Lighthizer and Secretary of the Treasury Mnuchin held a routine conference call with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He that evening to discuss the historic US-China first-stage economic and trade agreement. Implementation. The two parties talked about the actions China has taken to achieve the structural reforms required by the agreement to ensure stronger protection of intellectual property rights, remove obstacles to US companies in the financial services and agricultural sectors, and eliminate forced technology transfer. The two sides also discussed the issue of China's substantial increase in purchases of American products and the actions needed to implement the agreement in the future. Both parties have seen progress and pledged to take the necessary actions to ensure the success of the agreement.
According to people familiar with the talks, the atmosphere of the talks between the two sides was harmonious and the exchanges in agriculture and finance were relatively smooth.
The last call was on May 8, more than three months have passed in a blink of an eye.
At present, Sino-US relations have been extremely complicated and severe since the establishment of diplomatic relations.
The words and deeds of the two sides, every move, attention and involvement.
How to look at the current situation, combined with the call message, briefly talk about some opinions.
First, China and the United States are still working together to promote the implementation of the first-phase economic and trade agreement.
From the content of the call, the two sides talked about strengthening China-US macroeconomic policy coordination and the implementation of the first phase of the China-US economic and trade agreement, and in particular mentioned that "the two sides agreed to create conditions and atmosphere" to continue to promote the implementation of the agreement.
This is a very clear and highly targeted signal.
Due to the impact of the epidemic and the difficult situation faced by Sino-US relations, the outside world has been discussing the implementation of the first-phase economic and trade agreement.
All kinds of news that seem to exist or not, true or false, flood the public opinion field.
Take this call with the lead person as an example. Around August 15th, some people in the US once said categorically that the talks were "cancelled".
It is understood that the two parties have confirmed that the call is a matter of recent days. How did you "cancel" it on the 15th?
It is nothing more than some eye-catching and topic-setting methods, which are not uncommon in the trade negotiations of the past two years.
Judging from today’s news, China and the United States have a clear consensus on promoting the implementation of the agreement.
Especially for China, the sudden new crown pneumonia epidemic has caused great harm to the global economy and also brought some uncertainty to the implementation of the agreement. But even in the face of such extreme difficulties, China still keeps its promises. , To fulfill the agreement. In this year's government work report, the emphasis was placed on the need to "jointly implement the first phase of the China-US economic and trade agreement", reflecting the persistence of "promises must be trusted and deeds must be resolute."
However, we must also realize that "creating conditions and atmosphere" also means that there is room for improvement in conditions and atmosphere.
As we mentioned before, the epidemic has brought interference to the implementation of the agreement, but the biggest difficulty facing the implementation of the agreement may not be the epidemic.
On the one hand, the agreement is a two-sided commitment and requires the joint participation of China and the United States, rather than a unilateral obligation. If one party ignores or ignores this point intentionally or unintentionally, it is not conducive to the implementation of the agreement.
On the other hand, economic and trade agreements are economic and trade agreements. The implementation of economic and trade agreements is unnecessary and should not involve other matters.
Now some people in the United States have deliberately or unintentionally linked the first phase of the Sino-US economic and trade agreement with other matters out of consideration of election interests. This is not a wise approach and it will not produce good results.
Second, the "ballast stone" role of Sino-US economic and trade relations is still prominent.
Since the normalization of Sino-US relations, economic and trade relations have been called the "ballast stone" and "propeller" of Sino-US relations.
Since the U.S. provoked the Sino-U.S. economic and trade frictions in 2018, the normal Sino-U.S. economic and trade relations have been greatly damaged. Some people have doubts about the role of the "ballast stone".
However, from the signing of the first phase of the economic and trade agreement to the present half of the year, when Sino-US relations are facing severe tests, economic and trade cooperation has become a relatively stable area between China and the United States. Some people point out that Sino-US economic and trade cooperation is very important to ensure the normalization of Sino-US relations, to ensure that Sino-US relations do not derail or cross the red line.
This point is also very clear to foreign media, and many reports have mentioned it.
"The New York Times said that as China gradually emerges from the epidemic, purchases of American products appear to be on the rise. According to data from the General Administration of Customs of China, China’s imports from the United States in June this year increased by 15.1% year-on-year. Exports to the United States increased by 5.2% year-on-year. It is worth mentioning that China’s imports of American agricultural products were particularly strong this summer. Of the three largest purchases of US grains, two occurred in July, including a record purchase of corn.
"Trade disputes once caused tensions between the US and China. But now, the economic and trade agreement signed by the two countries in January seems to be the strongest part of the US-China relationship."
Former Trump trade adviser Kelly Ann Shaw said: "In the declining relationship between the two countries, the first phase of the trade agreement has become a shining point."
Bloomberg reported on the 24th that as Sino-US relations have deteriorated in many aspects such as technological security, Hong Kong and response to the epidemic, trade between the two largest economies in the world has become a rare area of cooperation.
Third, in the face of extremely complex situations, we should always maintain our strength.
It was mentioned in a previous article that after two years of trade war, China has always maintained a calm mind and handled extremely complex situations with a calm and rational attitude. The initial position has remained unchanged.
In today's situation, in the face of extremely complex situations, it is still necessary to maintain concentration.
This requires calmly judging the situation and rationally weighing the pros and cons. The key is to concentrate on doing your own thing.
Compared with the lengthy Sino-US economic and trade negotiations, the signing of the first phase of the economic and trade agreement is only the first round of the competition, a step to solve the problem, let alone the long-term development of Sino-US relations.
Dealing with external extreme pressure is a very test-taking thing-the courage and ability to dare to fight back, the wisdom and determination to be good at game, all are indispensable!
The most important thing is to concentrate on doing your own thing.
In fact, in the past two years of Sino-US economic and trade negotiations, doing your own thing has always been a very important topic.
In the face of external pressure, whether to focus on confrontation or development will bring about completely different consequences.
Finally, the future of Sino-US relations is a matter of man-made.
China-US relations are now facing an unprecedented situation.
The two sides have huge common interests and close ties, but there are also many differences.
Especially on the issue of development, there is a clear distance between China and the United States. We believe that a win-win situation can be achieved for each other, and they think it is possible to touch their "stock."
After all, this is a question of insisting on multilateralism or unilateralism.
The Sino-U.S. trade war, and even the various current differences, happened and evolved under this background.
To resolve differences, China and the United States need to have a deeper understanding of each other's strengths and intentions, and they need to form a more optimized way of getting along in accordance with the new situation.
But the problem now is that not only has China never seen such a situation, but the United States has never seen such a situation in its 200-plus years of development.
This is a road that no one has ever walked before-both China and the United States are facing brand-new issues.
How China and the United States find new ways of getting along, and what kind of ways they can find, are still inconclusive.
The only certainty is that tomorrow's results are produced by today's beliefs and actions.
Is it to fall into the trap of confrontation and repeat the tragedy of history?
Or stick to the road of cooperation and create a new history?
Although the future of Sino-US relations is inconclusive, it is man-made.