Trade, investment with China benefit US: ministry

BEIJING - Economic relations with China have brought substantial benefits to the United States, creating jobs and profits for US businesses, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday.

China is not the sole beneficiary of Sino-US economic ties, which are win-win by nature, MOC spokesperson Sun Jiwen told a press briefing.

He noted that exports of goods from the United States to China had risen by an annual average of 11 percent in the past decade, making China its fastest-growing export market outside North America.

From 2001 to 2016, US exports of services to China increased 15 fold, with the US service trade surplus rising 29 fold, he said.

In addition, trade and investment with China supported roughly 2.6 million jobs in the United States in 2015, said Sun, citing statistics from the US-China Business Council.

As of the end of 2016, non-financial investment in the United States by Chinese enterprises amounted to around $50 billion, which provided nearly 100,000 jobs across 44 states, according to Sun.

US investment in China has also benefited American firms, 90 percent of which were profitable, as shown by a US-China Business Council survey last year.

Sino-US trade volume grew from $2.5 billion in 1979 to about $520 billion in 2016, while mutual investment exceeded $170 billion by the end of 2016.