China, US business groups discuss cooperation in Washington

Delegates from the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) met with members of the US-China Business Council in Washington, D.C., on Friday for exchanges and discussions on strengthening economic and trade cooperation.

Ren Hongbin, chairman of CCPIT, said the council is ready to work with the US-China Business Council to build more high-quality platforms for government-business dialogue and trade exchanges, and to jointly promote cooperation between the two countries' business communities.

U.S. representatives noted that 2026 is the "China Year" of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and said American companies hope to take part constructively and pragmatically in related events.

"So there's this myth out there that American companies don't want to do business with China. Or there's another myth that says American companies are leaving China. Or the third one, there's a myth that American companies aren't investing in China or that American companies don't welcome Chinese companies in the United States. All of those are myths. All of those are false. As American companies are committed to being in China, they're committed to partnering with Chinese companies. They value their relationship with CCPIT and recognize that CCPIT and these types of exchanges help everybody," said Sean Stein, president of the US-China Business Council.

The U.S.-China Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum and the promotion meeting for the 5th China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) was held on Thursday in Chicago, drawing in over 180 representatives from political and business circles of the two countries.

As the world's first national-level exhibition focusing on supply chains, the CISCE has been an internationally shared public good since the first edition was held in 2023. The fifth edition is expected to be held in 2027.

Ren said at the event that China is accelerating the development of new quality productive forces, and there is broad potential for industrial cooperation between Chinese and American companies in areas such as artificial intelligence, green development, and the digital economy.

"Evolving from the world's factory to the world market and now an innovation hub, China will further expand institutional opening up and steadily foster a market oriented, law-based, internationalized business environment. We welcome more U.S. companies to come to China, embrace China opportunity 2.0 and achieve greater success in China," Ren said.

China, US business groups discuss cooperation in Washington

China, US business groups discuss cooperation in Washington

China, US business groups discuss cooperation in Washington

China, US business groups discuss cooperation in Washington

American firms no longer see China as just a vast market, but as a place to build meaningful partnerships that are essential to their global competitiveness strategies, said Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council.

Stein, a former U.S. diplomat with decades of experience serving the interests of American companies in China, has witnessed a dynamic transformation in the way these firms operate and how they view collaboration with local enterprises.

In an exclusive interview with CGTN, Stein said that joint ventures, once a requirement for foreign companies to operate in some industries, are increasingly being formed voluntarily.

"When I first started coming to China 25 years ago, I don't remember any American companies who would say, you know what, I sure love my joint venture partner. I am so glad I have a joint venture partner. You didn't hear that very often because the Chinese partner didn't have very much to add. Now what we see is, we see American companies who come to China, and they could do it alone, they could do it as a WFOE (wholly foreign-owned enterprise), but they're like, why would we do that? We see some great strength in Chinese companies. We want the right partner, whether it's a joint venture partner or strategic partner," said Stein.

"So we used to say that companies would come to China for the China market. And I now scold people because companies, yeah, they're here for the market, but that's not what's important today in 2026. They're here because, as we saw in our most recent survey, they're here because China is an important part of their global competitiveness," he said.

The business council president stressed that these partnerships are now indispensable for securing an edge in the worldwide marketplace.

"You can't look at all of the developments that are happening here and say, you know what, we're not going to take part of that and somehow remain competitive globally. So the real trend that we see, that our companies are talking about, that our board is talking about, that our CEOs are talking about, and when they talk to each other, it's how can we leverage what's happening in China, learn from it, partner with it, and use that to maintain and grow our competitiveness globally. So I think we now see a whole lot more cooperation between American and Chinese companies or between European and Chinese companies than maybe a decade ago or two decades ago," he said.

Joint ventures in China become crucial for competitiveness of American firms: US business leader