China-US relations: keep calm and don’t decouple, Chinese professor urges
- If one country wants to decouple, it’s best if others don’t follow suit, Peking University academic tells online forum
- China must instead focus on integration and making its products as compatible as possible with the rest of the world, he says
Adding his voice to a number of high-profile calls for more engagement with the US, Zha Daojiong, a professor of international political economy at Peking University’s school of international studies, told an online forum last week that there had always been a level of separation between the two economies in some areas but the concept had gained more currency in the United States in the last few years.
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The US could be trying to ‘decouple its economy’ from China to serve geopolitical goals
However, responding to the US push for further decoupling – as some hawks in China have urged – would only harm China.
“In fact, the United States has always kept a distance from China in terms of economic and trade policies. For example, the export of dual-use technology and hi-tech products has always been highly controlled by the US,” Zha said.
“For every country, it’s wise to cooperate if it can cooperate. But if one country wants a decoupling, it’s unwise for the other countries to follow that line and make it a reality.
“Even if the US drops the usage of ‘decoupling’ in the future, they will emphasise ‘reciprocity’,” Zha said, adding that China would be made to suffer if the US suffered.
Zha made his comments in the Boya Forum, a Peking University Press book promotion platform, and a transcript of his comments was released on Monday.