Beijing Adviser Says US Talks Cement China as ‘Equal Partner’

Henrietta Treyz, Co-Founder at Veda Partners, discusses US-China trade relations and their impact on US agriculture.

The summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Donald Trump was a breakthrough in bilateral relationship where the Asian giant was treated as an “equal partner” of the US, according to David Daokui Li, a regular policy adviser to Beijing.

“Among all the meetings between the two leaders, this one is perhaps the most important — really historical,” said Li, an economics professor at Tsinghua University and a former adviser to the Chinese central bank. “Fundamentally the most important progress for both sides is for the US to recognize China as equal partner to talk about things.”

Speaking to Bloomberg TV on Monday, Li described a sense of enthusiasm among his peers in Beijing following the leaders’ meeting in South Korea last week. The exchange led to a one-year trade truce, although it didn’t address core differences between the world’s two largest economies.

Still, Li expressed optimism that trade, financial and technological conflicts between the countries are “small potatoes” that will be resolved. More important, he said, the equal partnership will see the powers engage in “bigger talks” such as security issues concerning Ukraine, Taiwan, the South China Sea and the Middle East.

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