China, US interrelated, analysts say

Prosperity of one means other gains access to larger consumer market

China and the United States are interdependent in key areas despite their trade friction, and cooperation will benefit both, as well as the world, US analysts said.

"China's prosperity means a larger consumer market for US goods, and there's nothing fundamentally contradictory in both succeeding," said David Firestein, executive director of the China Public Policy Center of the University of Texas at Austin.

Sino-US relations have come to a "delicate and difficult" moment, and "we should be cautiously optimistic about the future of bilateral ties," he said.

There are differences in the policies of the two countries, Firestein said, adding that from Washington's perspective, trade relations are unbalanced, and China's economic system is different from that of the US.

Both countries should focus on the long term and resolve their differences in a constructive way rather than demonizing each other, he said.

China and the US agreed at the end of June to restart trade consultations during the meeting of President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan.

Trump said the US will not add new tariffs on imports from China and that he would allow US companies to continue to sell to the Chinese tech giant Huawei.

If Sino-US trade friction cannot be resolved, both countries as well as the global economy will suffer, Firestein said.

Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a special assistant to former US president Ronald Reagan, said: "I think it was very good that Xi and Trump met. The outcome of the meeting appears to be good."

Bandow hopes there will be a resolution, but he said it would be a long process, so future meetings and negotiations will continue.

"I don't see anything that would lead to conflict, and I think both governments have to be willing to compromise," he said, adding that the US has to be willing to accept that China is growing more powerful and will naturally take a greater role in East Asia.

Zhao Suisheng, professor and executive director of the Center for China-US Cooperation at the University of Denver, said that as the world's top two economies, China and the US could not be natural partners or natural enemies. Competition and cooperation will be interwoven in their bilateral relations, he said.

A fact that cannot be changed is that China and the US are highly interdependent in this globalized era, Zhao said.

"If the US tries to contain China and provoke a new cold war, it will only intensify the confrontation between them, and it will harm both," Zhao said.

As long as China continues its reform and opening-up, the US will not be able to contain China's development, he added.