Chinese Consul General in New York Huang Ping (C) presents gifts to Michael Grigalonis (left), president and chief operating officer of the Chester County Economic Development Council (CCEDC), and F. William Bogle, chairman of Pennsylvania Global Business Advisors, at a meeting at the CCEDC in Exton, Pennsylvania, the United States, on October 20, 2023. (Photo by Winston Zhou/Xinhua)
Senior executives from major multinational enterprises such as Microsoft, Apple, Tesla, Pfizer, Starbucks and ADM have visited China this year, expressing their optimism for the Chinese market and their hope to strengthen cooperation with Chinese companies.
EXTON, United States, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) — China’s market is not an “option” but a “must” as nearly 90 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the world’s largest consumer market earn profits, said Chinese Consul General in New York Huang Ping said on Friday.
“China is not the source of risk, but the source of opportunity. To exclude China in the name of ‘de-risking’ is to throw away opportunity, stability, cooperation and development,” Huang said when he addressed business leaders at the Chester County Economic Development Council (CCEDC) in Exton, Pennsylvania, about 150 km southwest of New York.
Senior executives from major multinational enterprises such as Microsoft, Apple, Tesla, Pfizer, Starbucks and ADM have visited China this year, expressing their optimism about the Chinese market and their hope for stronger cooperation with Chinese companies, Huang said. “They have shown that the Chinese market is not an ‘option’ but a ‘must.'”
Half of Tesla’s global shipments came from the Shanghai gigafactory last year, which churns out an electric vehicle every 40 seconds on average, according to Huang. Starbucks now operates more than 6,500 stores in China.
Workers work at the Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai, east China, May 12, 2023. (Xinhua/Ma Ning)
The Foreign Policy Association released a report titled America-China Business is Business, calling on US policymakers to look at China in the right light and strengthen economic and trade cooperation between the US and China.
According to statistics, the average return on US FDI in China was 14.7 percent between 2000 and 2020, much higher than that of US outward FDI of 9.7 percent. Exports to China supported more than 1 million jobs in the United States. More than 70,000 American companies do business in China, and nearly 90 percent are profitable.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai released its 2023 China Business Report, showing that 52 percent of U.S. companies surveyed expect greater revenue in 2023 compared to the previous year, while 31 percent of respondents are increasing investment in China. or by 6 percentage points more than last year.
The senior Chinese diplomat expressed confidence that Pennsylvania’s cooperation with China will be further strengthened as the Chinese economy maintains a good momentum of steady growth with remarkable resilience.
“Pennsylvania’s cooperation with China is at the forefront of China-US subnational cooperation. China has become Pennsylvania’s third largest export market and largest source of imports,” he said, adding that Philadelphia pioneers took the lead in opening trade with China more than 200 years ago.
Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Apple CEO Tim Cook in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 19, 2023. (Xinhua/Ding Lin )
Michael Grigalonis, CCEDC president and chief operating officer, agreed.
“We were very involved. Before the (COVID-19) pandemic, one of our real priorities was our relationship with China, (especially) the development of economic ties. And of course, as you say, this pandemic hit and we moved on to other priorities, but there are still some successes that are there and things that we can build on in the future,” Grigalonis said.
F. William Bogle, chairman of Pennsylvania Global Business Advisors, who first visited China in 1983, also encouraged business leaders to visit and explore opportunities in China.
“I have been to China a total of 28 times. But it’s always something new every time. It’s very exciting,” Bogle said, sharing the photos he took 40 years ago in China. ■