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Keynote Speech by Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Qin Gang At the USCBC Gala 2022

(From Chinese Embassy in America)

2022-12-08 00:07

6 December 2022, Washington D.C.  

Mr. Marc Casper,
Ambassador Craig Allen,
Friends of the Business Community,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good evening! Let me thank Ambassador Allen for expressing deep condolences to the passing away of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin on behalf of the USCBC and the business community of the United States. President Jiang Zemin was a great leader of China. He led the country out of very difficult circumstances in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, and took the country on the correct path towards reform, opening up and prosperity. He also made great contributions to the development of the China-US relationship. He had many friends in this country. His passing away is a great loss to China and to the China-US friendship. He will be long remembered by us.

Let me also thank the USCBC for making me the Distinguished Honoree of this year. Thank you, Mr. Casper, for all the nice words about me. But you forgot one thing. You didn’t say I’m a “wolf warrior” (laughter). The honor the USCBC is granting me is a show of trust and a great glory for me. But I know there is no such thing as a free dinner in the world. So I think the USCBC is asking me to do more for better China-US business relations. Indeed, over the past 500 days of my ambassadorship here, I have had close interactions with the US business community, and made many friends. Thank you all for your support and assistance to me.

Over the past decades, economic and trade ties have been a ballast and propeller of China-US relations. Now China and the US have become the world’s top two economies. There are more and greater areas where we need and can cooperate. I believe none of us wants to see global warming, but all of us want to see a “warming” of China-US cooperation. Therefore, we must not allow the ballast to reduce weight or the propeller to lose power. Instead, we need to provide fuel to ensure the ship of China-US relations will not lose direction or speed, and will brave the storm and ride the waves. I believe as our bilateral relations are faced with many challenges, this honor you kindly give me carries special weight. It is so heavy. I cannot take it or shoulder it alone. I want to share it with everybody in this room, in the US business community, who demonstrate your strong belief, persistence and resilience in the mutually beneficial cooperation between our two countries.

Friends,

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was held in October. I believe you must be very interested in the direction of China’s domestic and foreign policies. You must want to know where China is going. What I want to say is that the report delivered at the Party Congress is a comprehensive, profound reference book for China’s development. You can find answers to the many questions you have, and I encourage you to give a serious reading into it, instead of believing some hearsay and blindly following.

The Party Congress has set out the central task of the Party for the new era, which is, we will advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization. Chinese modernization, as a keyword of the report, has Chinese characteristics, such as a huge population, pursuit of common prosperity, coordinated material and cultural-ethical advancement. And it also reflects the aspirations of the entire humanity, such as peaceful development, and harmony between man and nature, which will benefit both China and the whole world. China follows a people-centered development philosophy, and takes the people’s aspiration for a better life as the starting point and final goal of its development. The 1.4 billion Chinese people are pursuing common prosperity through high-quality development. This means the Chinese people’s purchasing power will continue to grow, and their consumption will expand. It will create more market and development opportunities for the US and other countries. 

China is committed to peaceful development and its foreign policy goals of upholding world peace and promoting common development. China has no intention to dominate by force and fear, and other countries should not impose their values on the world, either. What China upholds and advocates are the common values of humanity, including peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom. We stand together with people of other countries to address various global challenges, and work hard to build a community with a shared future for mankind. This will provide certainty and stability to this turbulent and unstable world.

Friends, 

The theme of this Gala is “climate change”. Harmony between man and nature is a main feature of Chinese modernization, and a pledge made by China to the world. Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets — this is an essential requirement of high-quality development. China will not develop at the expense of the environment. Instead, we have announced the goal of achieving carbon peaking before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060, and we have introduced a roadmap, an action plan and specific measures to reach the goal. In the past ten years, China’s energy consumption per unit of GDP has dropped by 26.4%. In 2021, China’s installed power capacity of non-fossil fuels accounted for 47% of the total power generated, surpassing coal-fired power generation for the first time. The output and sales of new-energy vehicles in China have taken up more than half of the world’s total. It has been stated in the report to the Party Congress that China will broadly establish eco-friendly ways of work and life, and fundamentally improve the environment by 2035. I visited the Amish Village in Pennsylvania the other day. Over the past centuries, the Amish community have kept their traditional, natural way of life. For one thing, they don’t use dryers. They would hang their clothes to dry on clothes lines after laundry. This is very much like what we do in China — a green way of life (laughter). Let me echo Mr. Xie Zhenhua here, that we are ready to work with the US and the international community to address climate change. Since the Biden administration took office, China and the US have released two joint statements on climate, and will have formal consultations after COP27. I wish to thank the USCBC for donating to the Energy Foundation China. I hope the US business community will get more involved in our climate cooperation.

Friends,

Some people claim that China will move backwards from an open country to a closed one. This is totally baseless. It has been affirmed at the Party Congress that China is committed to its fundamental national policy of opening to the world. China will adhere to the right course of economic globalization, and promote high-standard opening-up. As we develop a bigger domestic market, we are not developing behind closed doors, but realizing coordinated and integrated development of domestic and international markets. This will bring new opportunities for companies worldwide. Over these years, China has not only earnestly honored international trade obligations, but also opened further on its own initiative, protected the rights and interests of foreign investors, including their IPR, and worked hard to build a market-oriented, law-based and world-class business environment. China’s negative list for foreign investors continues to shorten, and access restrictions on foreign investment have been lifted for the industries of new energy vehicles, finance, and others. Pre-establishment national treatment has been granted to both foreign and domestic investments in most industries. China will never shut its door.

Friends,

Some people worry that China’s COVID policies will hinder economic and social development, and they predict a weak Chinese economy going forward. Faced with COVID-19, China has put people’s lives first, and adopted science-based and effective policies in response. Because of these policies, the numbers of China’s infections and death cases are the smallest worldwide. There is no denying that the policies have had some impact on the economy and people’s life. But in general, China has realized a good balance between protecting the people and restoring the economy. In the first three quarters of this year, China’s GDP grew by 3% year-on-year, up by 0.5 percentage point from the first two quarters. Between January and October, China’s paid-in foreign investment was over 168 billion dollars, up by 17.4% year-on-year, and China’s import and export stood at 5.26 trillion dollars, with an increase of 7.7%. The fundamentals of the Chinese economy remain unchanged, with strong resilience, enormous potential and long-term sustainability. The strengths we have, including a solid foundation, the huge size of the economy and market, and high-caliber talents, will be brought into play as we enter a post-COVID era.

Since November, China has further improved its COVID policies. We have eased test requirements for inbound passengers, abolished the “circuit breaker” policy for inbound flights, and shortened the quarantine time for travelers entering China. For areas where closed-off management is needed, we take action promptly, and when it’s no longer needed, the measures are lifted immediately. Governments at various levels are doing their best to serve the needs of enterprises and ensure the economy goes well. On the basis of science-based and targeted control measures, we will continue to make dynamic adjustments to facilitate business and personnel exchanges as much as we can.

Friends,

Some people worry that a tense China-US relationship will hamper our economic and trade cooperation. I share this worry. China and the US are major trading and investment partners. Our industries are deeply integrated and complementary. Our cooperation has huge potential to tap. Having said all this, the US defines China as “the most serious competitor” and “the most serious long-term geopolitical challenge”, out of grave strategic misperception and misjudgment. Because of this, it has imposed export controls, import restrictions, investment reviews, as well as measures in tech cooperation, industry supervision and industrial subsidies. These measures have reduced semiconductors, new energy, and other areas that should have provided business opportunities to some “no-go areas”. They run counter to the principles of market economy and rules of international trade, and are disruptive to global industrial and supply chains. Let me give you an example. The US has recently introduced several restrictions on semiconductor export to China. These restrictions will cost the global semiconductor industry almost 10 billion dollars in the next three years, and bring considerable negative impact in the mid-to-long term. What the US needs is growing its economy, adding jobs, cutting inflation and reducing budget deficits. Healthy, stable and cooperative trade relations with China will serve America’s own interests. Stretching the concept of national security and politicizing and weaponizing economic and trade ties should not be the real purpose or normal state of such ties. Building a small yard with high fences, cutting off supplies, and seeking decoupling are detrimental to both oneself and others. We should not let national security stand in the way of economic development and improvement of people’s lives in both countries. On issues concerning the economy and trade, people need to face the reality that China and US are deeply integrated, people should take the interests and voice of the business community seriously, follow business rules, and conduct professional discussions. To decouple from China is to decouple from potentially the biggest market in the world; to cut off supplies for China is to cut itself off from opportunities.

Friends,

Not long ago, President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden met in Bali and reached a number of common understandings. This important meeting has charted the course for China-US relations. In the meeting, both Presidents stressed the importance for China and the US to manage differences and avoid conflict and confrontation. President Xi pointed out, mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation are the right way for the two countries to get along. President Biden said that the US has no intention to seek decoupling from China, to halt China’s economic development, or to contain China. The two Presidents have instructed their teams to hold dialogue on macroeconomic policies and trade relations. We hope that their common understandings will be earnestly implemented, and our two countries can set the tone of interactions as dialogue and win-win cooperation, not confrontation or zero-sum game, so as to take China-US relations back to the track of healthy and stable development.

The business community is an important contributor and advocate of China-US relations. Last month, Ambassador Allen visited China. He had extensive engagements with Chinese government officials and business people and got to know better about China-US trade ties, about China’s policies for growth and opening-up, and about people’s wish for more business and investment. He also expressed the concerns and demands of the American business community. We attach great importance to them. As long as they are reasonable and constructive, we will listen and act accordingly. At the same time, we also call on the US side to provide a fair business environment for Chinese enterprises.     

Friends,

The USCBC will celebrate its 50th birthday next year. Confucius said, “At fifty, I know what were the biddings of Heaven”. I believe the USCBC knows where this relationship should go, and will continue to lead the US business community to another 50 years of win-win cooperation.

I wish you a very happy holiday season and a wonderful New Year! Thank you!

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