BOSTON Justin Abdelkader USA Jersey , April 27 (Xinhua) -- Despite the huge potential forU.S.-China cooperation, the lack of mutual trust and deep-rootedmisunderstandings prevented the two countries from moving closer ontrade as well as other issues, Anthony Saich, a leading U.S. experton China told Xinhua in a recent interview.
As he sees it, there are three common misunderstandings in theUnited States about China that contributed to the mistrust Jonathan Quick USA Jersey , saidSaich, the director of Ash Center for Democratic Governance andInnovation and a professor of international affairs at Harvard'sKennedy School of Government.
The first is about the substantial growth of U.S. exports toChina in the past 15 years, which is often neglected or played downby U.S. politicians seeking to create the impression that Chinainundates the U.S. market with its manufactured goods.
"I was looking at some figures recently. U.S. exports to Chinahave gone up 500 percent since China entered the World TradeOrganization, which is a counter to the normal rhetoric," hesaid.
The second is the simplistic view of U.S.-China trade imbalancebased only on trade figures.
"It is about how do you count trade. A lot of what is exportedfrom China the real value added is to American firms John Carlson USA Jersey ," Saich said,adding that "American investment into China is much more globallyintegrated than Chinese investment into the U.S. at themoment."
U.S. investments in China "play an important part in the U.S.economy, and an important part of the global production chain,that's not the case with Chinese investments into America...they'remuch more one-off, buying buildings which are overpriced and buyingcompanies which are massively overpriced."
The third commonly-held misconception in the United States aboutChina arises from the rhetoric that China steals U.S. jobs Joe Pavelski USA Jersey , saidthe expert.
"Chinese is not stealing American jobs, technology is stealingAmerican jobs. The peak for U.S. manufacturing in terms ofemployment was well over 50 years ago and it has been in declineever since, so it's technology that's taking the jobs not China,"Saich said.
The two largest economies in the world are highly complementaryto each other, Saich noted Jamie Langenbrunner USA Jersey , as many pundits have pointed out.
For example, President Donald Trump listed infrastructure as akey part of his economic policy, and China has rich experiences inthis aspect, he said. "That's an area that if facilitated could behugely beneficial to the United States."
"Look how terrible the railway service is up and down the EastCoast. I was stunned when I went to China and got on the high-speedrails. It's embarrassing coming back to AmTrak in America so thoseare kinds of areas where I think they're win-win," Saich added.
Saturday marks Trump's 100th day in the White House and there isalready a torrent of media reports reviewing his performance as theU.S. president during the period James van Riemsdyk USA Jersey , and China is often a crucial partof these reports, highlighting the fact that U.S.-China relationsare the world's most important bilateral ties.
The recent meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S.President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago may help reduce mutualsuspicion between Washington and Beijing, according to Saich.
"I think the visit of President Xi was very helpful in terms ofthe