U.S. Amb. to China: China ‘Critical’ to U.S. Success Due to Trade, We Want More Work with Them on Climate

During an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns stated that due to the trade relationship between the two countries, China is “critical” for America’s success and vice versa and that he hopes to “stabilize the relationship. What that could mean in the next few months is that we continue to work on climate change together.” Burns also said that we are de-risking with China and will compete with them on other issues.

Burns said, “[W]e’ve been very consistent in our government in saying we do not want to see a decoupling of these two economies. We’re the two — the U.S. and China — the two largest economies in the world. We’re critical for each other’s success, given the trade relationship. We’re fundamental to the health of the global economy. So, we’ve been very consistent in saying, that’s not what we’re after. But we are de-risking.”

In another part of the interview, [relevant remarks begin around 15:50] Burns stated, “[W]hat we’ve got to do is continue the progress from the San Francisco meeting, to continue to stabilize the relationship. What that could mean in the next few months is that we continue to work on climate change together. John Podesta is our new climate negotiator, that we work on food security, that we work on promoting American agriculture here. 1/5th of our ag exports in the United States go to China. And that we also compete with China on issues like technology, the TikTok issue, on the security and military issues we’ve talked about, and on leveling of the playing field for American companies here, because it’s not level with I.P. violations, forced technology transfers.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett