Cui Tiankai speaks out on issues affecting Americans

Ambassadors rarely directly address their concerns about the country where they are posted to the people who reside there.

However, China's Washington envoy Cui Tiankai did that at least twice recently.

Both times he spoke out when rhetoric in the US threatened to undermine Sino-US trade or derail bilateral relations, both of which put the interests of the people in both countries in harm's way.

The first time was two months ago when he attended a meeting of US governors. The parley followed some ups and downs in China-US relations in the first half of this year, including the Trump administration's early challenge to the One-China Policy and Washington's imposing of high punitive tariffs on Chinese goods which fueled protectionism.

Problems in China-US relations mostly come from the federal government, but it is always the states that foot the bill, he said during an event that was part of the US National Governors Association's meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, on July 13.

As is in China, ultimately it is the workers, entrepreneurs, overseas students and visitors in the US who will suffer. "This is unfair to them," the Chinese ambassador said. "Congressmen should be very clear what their voters' needs are, and should know better how to fulfill their obligations to the people in their constituencies."

To understand the extent that economic relations of the world's two largest powers are intermingled, one only needs to know that every US state and almost every congressional district has Chinese investments, which combined have created 141,000 jobs for Americans, mostly in manufacturing sector.

Overall, China-US trade volume has grown from $2.5 billion in 1979 when the two countries established official diplomatic relations, to $524.3 billion last year, a jump of 209 times.

The second time Cui expressed his concerns to Americans was last weekend at the Chinese embassy, when he was asked to comment on the so-called "secondary sanctions" on China. US President Donald Trump tweeted earlier this month that Washington is considering "stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea".

US Senator Tom Cotton, a Trump ally, again talked about "putting pressure on China" on Sunday.

Cui said that if someone were to pressure China or impose sanctions on China over the DPRK's repeated missile tests, such an attempt would be "off-target", and it would probably not be supported even by many US citizens.

"Workers at US airplane factories, farmers growing soybeans, companies that sell smartphones to China, manufacturers that enjoy large market shares in China, companies in the service sector that have gained trade surplus in China, US states that engage in robust trade with China would all stand against it," the ambassador said on Sept 15.

China and the United States have benefited tremendously from bilateral trade. And people in both countries have the right to reap benefits from a good China-US relationship. Such a right should not be impaired by any means.

Three months ago, I attended a US-China think tank symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, where I learned some very telling figures and heard anecdotes about bilateral relations.

In 2016, General Motors sold 3.87 million automobiles in China, or one car every eight seconds, Hong Lei, China's consul general of Chicago, told the symposium on June 12. Ford Motor Co sold one automobile every 25 seconds for a total of 1.27 million that year. McDonald's, which boasts of at least 2,200 stores in China, sells 1,600 hamburgers every minute.

In a visit to the Des Moines-based Principle Financial Group, the company's president, Dan Houston, told Hong that by 2030, the world's GDP will be equally distributed among China, the US and the rest of the world.

"He asked me where should he go as a multinational enterprise if he did not go to China?" Hong said.

I think Ambassador Cui has actually addressed concerns of Houston and his peers.

Contact the writer at huanxinzhao@chinadailyusa.com