Effective communication between China and the United States will help remove some American people's misunderstanding about China's rising investment in the North American country, a Chinese entrepreneur said Monday.
Pin Ni, president of Wanxiang America Corporation, a Chicago-based arm of China's automobile component giant Wanxiang Group, said the United States has seen a growing number of Chinese investments in the country in recent years.
However, some officials of the U.S. government and parliament have shown concern about China's expanding influence on their political life, Pin said ahead of a forum on China's investment in the United States, held in downtown San Francisco on the U.S. west coast.
Some American people were worried about China's competitiveness on the U.S. market, which could challenge the interests of American companies. This is not true but a misconception about China's businesses in the United States, he said.
"There's a tremendous misunderstanding and disconnection between the U.S. and China," although China has invested more than 45 billion U.S. dollars in the country, he said, "we don't have effective communication which could have included good comprising and negotiation."
Yukon Huang, a renowned economist and senior fellow of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, echoed Ni's remarks, saying U.S. officials often criticize China for having too much surplus against America in trade between the two countries.
It's a matter of miscalculation on the U.S. side, he said, citing the example of the manufacturing of Apple's iphones in China.
After China joined the World Trade Organization decades ago, many transnational companies sent parts and components to China and get assembled there due to lower labor costs.
"For a 800-dollar iPhone, only 5 percent of the value of that phone actually goes to China, but most of it goes to Japan, Singapore and South Korea while the rest goes to Apple," he explained.
However, some people in America thought the whole 800-dollar value was a Chinese export to the United States, which was eventually calculated as part of the country's deficit with China, Huang said, noting "This is where misconception is on the U.S. side."
Such a structural problem in the China-U.S. trade cannot be resolved politically, which would otherwise achieve a counter-productive effect, he said, adding that more mutual understanding between the two sides may help remove such misconceptions in the China-U.S. relations.
The forum was organized by the Committee of 100 (C-100), an international non-profit organization that brings a Chinese American perspective to issues concerning Asian Americans and U.S.-China relations.
Founded in 1990, the group has gathered some most influential Chinese Americans with extraordinary achievements, including world renowned architect I.M. Pei and internationally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
