Maintain strategic composure, not be affected by US bullying

Tariffs added to Chinese products by the US have almost entirely fallen on US importers' shoulders, some of which were transferred to US customers, according to a research report issued by International Monetary Fund (IMF), foreign media reported.

The China-US trade war initiated by the US harms others without benefiting itself. As the influences of the trade war on US manufacturers are more complicated, US manufacturers affected by tariffs, and some who use these affected products as intermediate input are all potential losers. The Federal Reserve (FED) will continue to tighten up monetary policy once inflation rate increases conspicuously, which will be a disaster for US stock and bond markets which are valued highly at present.

The core idea behind the US initiating the trade war is that it blames China’s trade surplus for the rising unemployment rate of US manufacturing industry over the past 20 years, which is a low-level incorrect polulist notion. In fact, the rise of US unemployment of US manufacturing industry mainly comes from mechanical automation which replaced manpower, instead of unbalanced trade.

According to statistics, the number of employment in manufacturing industry resulted from US trade deficit only accounted for 15.1 percent from 1992 to 2012, while the rest was caused by the rapid improvement in manufacturing productivity. Therefore, job loss would continue to rise even if the US lowers its trade deficit.

China can’t be affected by the US economic bullying while heading towards a new round of reform and opening-up. We should be keenly aware of the essence of the complicated and long-term China-US trade war, maintain strategic composure and stay alert to the rise of narrow nationalism.

This year marks the 40 anniversary of the establishment of China-US diplomatic relations. Under the background of globalization, the two countries have the fundamental basis for strategic cooperation, including on global security and peace, regional hot issues, energy, food and climate change, which can’t be ignored. China-US cooperation can facilitate major undertakings that benefit the two countries and the world, while confrontation will be a disaster for the two sides and the whole world.

Contributed by Lin Hongyu for Guangming Daily

Translated by Zhang Zhou