Fostering China-US cooperation

He believes the bilateral relationship is held hostage by the two countries' general anxiety about global issues. To the US, China is the face of globalization, compared with Japan decades ago. To China, the US is the most powerful country in the world.

"We are all relative to the rest of the world; we are all going to be less powerful. ... That means we need more cooperation," he said.

Morrison is equally pessimistic that a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) will be approved by the US Congress anytime soon - if it's ever even negotiated completely - but he said it's important for the two countries to continue to negotiate and work hard "because that's the way we learn about each other's practices".

He said he was glad that leaders of the two countries have addressed cybersecurity and made progress on it, despite the fact that it remains an issue.

Morrison was heartened by the cooperation at the subnational level. When US state and Chinese provincial officials met in Hawaii two weeks ago, they did not discuss a single negative issue such as the South China Sea, but rather how to improve business relations.

"Everybody wants foreign investment to their region," he said. "So at the local level, we see a kind of different relationship than the one between Washington and Beijing. That is another dimension of the US-China relationship, one we try to continue to cultivate."

At the EWC, research focuses primarily on the entire region rather than on a specific country, but Morrison admitted that China's rise has made it an essential partner for virtually every project.

"Most of the activities here are about the region, but I would say China is 80 percent of the region sometime, for good or for bad," he said, chuckling.

Besides the US, Japan and the Philippines used to have more participants than any other country, but China is quickly catching up.

"I think after the US, China is probably the country with the most representation in terms of participants now," he said. That includes scholars, officials, journalists and students.

Morrison called Wu Jianmin, the former Chinese senior diplomat who died on June 18 in a traffic accident, as "my very good friend". He tweeted the news that day with deep sorrow for the death of Wu, who was a member of the EWC international advisory panel.

Wu had always been regarded as the opposite of the more hardline and nationalistic voices in China. Morrison expressed concerns over a voice like that going away.

China's growing role in EWC is reflected in Morrison's travel agenda. He is headed to China for the Eco Forum Global Conference 2016 in Guiyang, Southwest China's Guizhou province, from July 8-10.

He also will go to Yangzhou of East China's Jiangsu province in late September for the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council meeting and then make another trip to China in November. He has already attended the Boao Forum on Hainan Island and a meeting on education in Hangzhou, in East China's Zhejiang province.

"So this year I may go to China five times," he said.

Under Morrison, the EWC has opened an office in Washington and has a room in Beijing that is used for activities in China but is still not staffed.

Morrison indicated that it will now be the work of his successor to staff the Beijing office. Having served as EWC's president since 1998, he believes it's time to move on and for a new person to take over and lead the institution.

The EWC launched a global search early this year to prepare for Morrison's retirement, which is expected in August.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com