Photo: Chinese Consul-General in Chicago Zhao Jian
CHICAGO, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Enhanced economic and trade cooperation is the best choice for both China and the United States, said Chinese Consul-General in Chicago Zhao Jian.
Zhao made the remarks at the China General Chamber of Commerce-U.S.A. Chicago (CGCC Chicago) 2019 annual gala, which was held in Chicago on Tuesday to further promote bilateral relations.
Zhao hailed CGCC Chicago's role in committing itself to building bridges for economic and trade cooperation between China and the United States.
"This year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of China-U.S. diplomatic ties. Despite this ups and downs in the past 40 years, China-U.S. relations have made huge progress. That was unimaginable 40 years ago," said Zhao.
Statistics show that in the past 40 years, two-way trade in goods between China and the United States grew from less than 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in 1979 to 633.5 billion dollars in 2018. Meanwhile, two-way direct investment totaled nearly 160 billion dollars in the past four decades.
"The most important conclusion we can draw from our 40 years of the relationship is that we both stand to benefit from cooperation and loss in confrontation," noted Zhao, adding that win-win cooperation has always been at the foundation of China-U.S. relations, and it has been the shared desire of people to further strengthen bilateral exchanges and cooperation.
According to Zhao, only the cooperation and constructive dialogue based on mutual respect, equality, and mutual benefit can China and the United States find proper solutions to the current problems.
Zhao said that as the Chinese and the U.S. economies are highly complementary and deeply interconnected, cooperation and dialogue make the two sides better off than frictions and confrontation.
Zhao expressed his sincere hope that the business community in both China and the United States can continue to actively support and participate in China-U.S. trade and economic cooperation for the mutual benefits and shared prosperity for the two countries.
"I believe China's peaceful development and expanded reform and opening up will bring more opportunities and benefits to other countries in the world," concluded Zhao.
China General Chamber of Commerce-U.S.A. (CGCC) is a nonprofit organization representing Chinese enterprises in the United States. CGCC Chicago covers nine states in the U.S. Midwest, including Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin.
Direct investment from China to the U.S. Midwest reached 22.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, creating about 45,000 jobs for local residents. The export trade volume from the U.S. Midwest to China reached 31.2 billion dollars in 2017, creating 216,900 jobs locally. (Contributed by Zhang Yuan, edited by Hu Pingchao, hupingchao@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
