Envoy: 'No reason' for 'zero-sum' bilateral ties

China's ambassador to the United States said "China's journey of reform and opening-up will never stop", which means "opportunity, opportunity and opportunity" for the US and the world.

Ambassador Xie Feng also said "cooperation is the only right choice" for China and the US.

"Not long ago, the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held its third plenary session, which made systematic planning for further deepening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernization," Xie said.

"A new milestone in China's reform and opening-up, the meeting is also a gateway for the world to understand China," Xie said in the speech via video at the sixth US-China Business Forum held by Forbes China on Tuesday in New York.

"It will both shape China's future trajectory and influence the world in a significant way," he said.

Xie said that with greater depth of reform will come new opportunities for growth; with higher-standard opening-up will come new market opportunities; and with higher-quality development will come new opportunities for cooperation.

He said that in the first half of this year, China's GDP grew 5 percent compared with last year, outperforming many other major economies. "This shows its resilience."

"Opening-up is a defining feature of Chinese modernization," Xie said, and China is aiming "to make the pie bigger and the list of cooperation longer, so as to deliver win-win outcomes for all", which means "we will open up more doors" and "we will break down more barriers".

Xie said high-quality development is the "primary task" in building China into a modern socialist country.

The newly launched Chinese video game Black Myth: Wukong is an example, he said, saying it "has recently become a global hit".

"So you can see the huge consumption potential in the debut economy and also the magic of integrating traditional culture with modern technology," he said.

More than 120 people attended the forum.

Xie also said "scapegoating solves no problem, and trade war, industrial war or tech war produces no winner" when there are new circumstances and challenges.

Promoting open trade

"A major inspiration we can get from China-US relations over the past 45 years is that when we work together, both countries and peoples will fare well; but when we turn against each other, both sides and the world will suffer," Xie said.

Xie said that China and the US need to "both expand cooperation in traditional areas including economy, trade and agriculture, and nurture cooperation in new areas such as climate change and AI, so that both our countries and the world will come out as winners".

He said that "there is simply no reason" why the China-US relationship should be a zero-sum game.

"Tesla's Gigafactory Shanghai can now produce more than 950,000 vehicles per year, and its megapack factory there is nearly half complete just three months after construction started. Apple is ramping up its investment in China, expanding its applied research center in Shanghai and opening a new lab in Shenzhen," Xie said. "All these are evidence of the vigor of China-US business cooperation.

"Our two countries can help each other succeed in a race to the top, and both develop ourselves and prosper together on this vast planet," Xie said.

Over the past few years, the US has made a series of moves to contain China, but many of them are counterproductive, said Wang Xiaofeng, director of international cooperation at the Center for China and Globalization, a Chinese think tank.

"Instead of trying to slow down China, the US should focus on strengthening its own innovative capabilities by promoting open trade and technological collaboration, rather than relying on protectionism and sanctions," said Wang.