Mutually beneficial plan to balance Sino-US ties

The meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump concluded on a positive note with the two sides agreeing on a 100-day plan to boost their relationship by taking concrete measures to balance bilateral trade.

Although the 100-day plan can be interpreted in different ways, considering it as China giving in to the demands of the United States would reflect a zero-sum game mindset. In 2001, some even claimed China had made a lot of economic concessions to join the World Trade Organization. But after more than 15 years, it is clear China has hugely benefited from the multilateral trade mechanism. Similarly, rebalancing of bilateral trade relations is necessary for not only the US but also China.

Since the 1980s China has followed export-oriented economic and trade policies, which brought Chinese enterprises huge profits and created millions of jobs. By producing goods for exports, China gained rich knowledge about global trade. But China's rapid economic growth took a heavy toll on its natural environment and natural resources. The benefits China got, in terms of research and development for example, was not definitely worth the environmental damage it suffered.