Wang huiyao: To mend fraying Sino-US relations, nothing can beat face-to-face interaction

SCMP | August 06 , 2022

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From SCMP， 2022-8-6

 

■ US-China exchanges have fallen off a cliff amid tensions and the pandemic, but American policymakers, academics and business leaders still want to better understand China.

■ Academic and cultural exchanges must be revived quickly; cooperation is vital to address global crises.

 

Illustration: Craig Stephens

 

By Wang Huiyao | Founder of the Center for China and Globalization(CCG)

 

Engagement is not just a foreign policy stance. It is also a web of bilateral relationships between both individuals and institutions, including government agencies and a diverse array of civil organisations, universities, think tanks and business groups.

Unfortunately, in recent years, such links between China and the United States have frayed amid political tensions and the pandemic.

Earlier this month, a delegation from the Centre for China Globalisation (CCG) visited the US for 10 days, hoping to make a small contribution to rebuilding these bilateral ties. The trip was part of an engagement tour that also took us to Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Seoul and Singapore.

In New York and Washington, we met representatives from 30 institutions, including prominent think tanks, business leaders, journalists and officials from the US State Department and the Chinese embassy. To our knowledge, it was the first such visit to the US by a Chinese think tank delegation since the pandemic began.

Having returned to China, three takeaways from the trip stand out.

First, it is clear the “human architecture” of China-US relations has atrophied over the past three years. By this, I mean the stock of knowledge, expertise and interpersonal connections that allow the two countries to understand and communicate with each other.

Before the pandemic, the CCG would make several trips to engage with its US counterparts each year, part of a tide of bilateral exchange that saw 14,000 people travel from China to America each day.

In recent years, bilateral tensions have taken a toll on this interaction. At the governmental level, regular meetings such as annual strategic and economic dialogues have ceased. There has been a chilling effect on academic exchange and research collaboration. With the outbreak of Covid-19, these cross-border flows have reduced to a trickle.

Organisations such as our think tank have adapted by using virtual platforms to engage with our counterparts on the other side of the Pacific. But, as our recent trip brought home, this is no substitute for in-person exchange when it comes to the candour, depth of conversation and social bonding necessary for effective communication and trust building.

Meeting old friends in the US, who, like me, are not getting any younger, I was reminded that part of maintaining a healthy China-US relationship is cultivating new talent that can help manage differences and bridge the divide between the two countries.

An older generation of China watchers, many with strong language skills, deep personal ties to China, and extensive knowledge of the country, are gradually leaving the stage in Washington. No doubt, there are many bright minds in the upcoming generation.

But they are also coming of age in a more hawkish political environment and have been unable to visit China for the past three years, which will surely affect their understanding of contemporary China and its language. This can only be detrimental to China-US relations in the long run.

My second takeaway from our US trip gives more reason for optimism. Despite a hardening of views towards China over the past two years, there is still a great desire to better understand China among US policymakers, academics and business leaders, and there is a significant constituency still committed to working for a more constructive bilateral relationship.

Our delegation was warmly received wherever we went in New York and Washington. All the events we participated in ran over time, such was the hunger for discussion and the volume of questions people wanted to ask about China.

This was particularly so for the business groups we met, such as the US-China Business Council and the US Chamber of Commerce. Despite concerns over the worsening of China-US relations and the war in Ukraine, we found that, in general, the US business executives we spoke to remain pragmatic towards China and tend to be less hawkish than the prevailing view in the US media.

We encountered many misperceptions about China, but also great curiosity and an eagerness to return to the country. Several business leaders we met, including Business Council president Craig Allen, were among the founding members of a new group that declared its aims to rebuild US relations with China in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on July 6.

Building on the first two observations, my third and final takeaway from our trip is that it is crucial for both sides to work to restore interpersonal exchanges as soon as possible. Zoom cannot replace in-person interaction when it comes to building trust and understanding.

The pandemic has smothered this channel when global cooperation is sorely needed to address the crisis of compounding risks, from inflation and food shortages to the pandemic and climate change.

China must continue to protect the health of its citizens. But more steps could be taken to facilitate the return of foreign students and outbound trips by Chinese scholars, such as allowing more international flights and easing restrictions on entry and exit.

One think-tank expert we spoke to suggested that China could adopt a form of the closed-loop model, as used in the Winter Olympics, enabling US citizens to visit and meet Chinese counterparts face to face.

Thankfully, China’s policies are moving in the right direction to allow personal exchanges to resume. When we met Ambassador Qin Gang in Washington, he asked us to convey the message to our US counterparts that China welcomes more interaction between businesses and institutions.

Premier Li Keqiang reiterated this message recently, in a World Economic Forum dialogue, saying that international students may return to China to continue their studies if they wish, and pledging to improve visa policies and other steps to facilitate cross-border travel. Hopefully, our trip to the US will be the first of many and signal a resumption of academic and cultural exchange between the two countries.

 

From SCMP， 2022-8-6