Brookings Institution: Well-versed participants looking at US-China relations from the perspectives of localized dealings

An august group of seasoned politicians sat around in a forum to express their observations of the dynamics in trade and investment of US enterprises in China:
The Hon. Kate Brown, Governor of Oregon
The Hon. Bob Holden, Former Governor of Missouri
James Fellows, The Atlantic
David Dollar, Brookings Senior Fellow
Reta Jo Lewis, German Marshall Fund
Amb. Nina Hachigian, Deputy Mayor, City of Los Angeles
and
Ryan Hass, China Center, Brookings Institution

The event was held at the Brookings, Washington, DC on Monday, July 29, 2019.

Discussants emphasized that changes between the relationship is currently underway, as China has rapidly become accepted as a bona fide international trading partner, despite its relatively recent meteoric rise.  Through trade with China, nations the world over, and particularly the United States, have met their manufacturing needs through cooperative ventures.

Former Governor Bob Holden made several observations to the effect that for the United States, Chinese trade and its concomitant effect of investment in China, though only representing about 10% of  what the US spends on its trading agreements with other nations, has been an important way to link with the Chinese people in an everyday setting despite our manifold cultural and political differences, I concluded from Governor Brown's impressions.     

Nevertheless, change there is; and we really don't know the outcome of the present trade negotiations between our two countries at the moment of this meeting, several participants pointed out, perhaps in consternation over these year-long proceedings.

For Holden, the key to the significance of the talks lies in the fact that US companies have made relatively minor commitments long-range to developing China through investment.  For it would seem that US companies are counting on some spiraling achievements in Artificial Intelligence and the deployment of robots to replace workers that will herald radically new approaches in industry, thereby lessening reliance on Chinese manpower in the not-to-distant future.   

Nevertheless, several participants emphasized the non-competitive framework of working together for mutual benefit important for gaining mutual respect in the workplace and beyond among us two cultures.  It could even contribute to the cause of world-wide peace by creating trust in all peoples of different backgrounds, someone exclaimed.

All-in-all trade between the two countries has been a person-to-person getting-to-know-one-another experience; and let us hope that relations between the two countries continue to build upon that good-will in the workplace--I thought to myself upon leaving the Auditorium.