As US-China tensions run hot, ex-planning official talks up benefits of hammering it out

With no expectations for a dramatic shift in China-US relations, China should strive to increase communication through official and non-official channels, according to a former official with the country’s top economic planner.

Xu Lin, once director general of the National Development and Reform Commission’s fiscal and financial affairs department, said China and the US should enhance official and civil communication to clarify misunderstandings.

China’s legislative body and its top political advisers should increase communications with the US House of Representatives and Senate, he said during an online conference on Thursday.

“Both the Senate and House of Representatives play a major role in formulating policies towards China,” he said. “Enhancing talk between these bodies may help clear up some misunderstandings and reduce their unfavourable legislation and policies towards China.

“China also needs to increase civil interaction with the US. This can help create a good climate, since civil attitudes also influence US political policy.”

And it is not just the US with whom China should strive to improve communication mechanisms, he said, as enhancing them with other major economies, as well as the G20, “would also be beneficial for [China’s] domestic macroeconomic management”.

But Xu said that, amid bipartisan support in the US on China policies, “I don’t think there will be any major changes, but rather some minor adjustments”, regardless of whom is elected president.

He also sees Washington’s current approach as so focused on harming China that politicians in the US are overlooking the damage being caused to its own interests.

“The stand-off between China and the US may stabilise in a zero-sum scenario where neither side benefits,” he said.

Geopolitics, shaped largely by Sino-US tensions, has drawn globalisation into a decline, yet China should nonetheless continue to maintain a channel for dialogue with the international community, he said.

“China should more actively promote globalisation, which generally benefits its economy,” Xu noted. “China is fully capable of developing systems that support free trade and investment facilitation, building on multilateral foundations within bilateral frameworks.”