China and the United States have reached the deepest down right now, said Stephen A. Orlins, president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. He has called upon the two countries to cooperate in combating issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic and voiced confidence in the people-to-people contact in the future.

Stephen A. Orlins, president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations

Noting that China and the US have gone through ups and downs over the past four decades, Orlins said that the bilateral relationship is currently experiencing a deeply troubling time.

“Today should have been a sunny September day in New York, but the sun was obscured by smoke because of the forest fires 5,000 kilometers away in California, Washington and Oregon. At the same time, the people living on the Gulf Coast of the US are about to experience or are experiencing…almost one meter of rain. We’ve seen today another almost a thousand Americans die of COVID-19,” he said during an interview at the 2020 Taihe Civilizations Forum hosted by the Taihe Institute on September 16.

“All of these issues can only be solved if the United States and China cooperate,” Orlins said, stressing that both countries must cooperate to combat issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, economic crisis and terrorism.

Referring to concerns that a decoupling of China and the US is taking place, Orlins shared his opinion that although the decoupling is happening, it will be limited.

He further explained that the cost of decoupling to both societies, such as productivity and efficiency, is so huge that those societies will begin to fight against it, and that businesses and others who see the decoupling hurting productivity and efficiency as well as slowing GDP growth will resist it.

“Over time, there will be some level of decoupling, but there won’t be a total decoupling between the US and China,” he said.

Orlins was also optimistic about the people-to-people relationship of the two countries, as it benefits both countries and the peoples of both sides.

According to Orlins, the US restrictions on Chinese students not only hurts Chinese students, but hurts American universities too.

“When I go to an American university, the number of graduate students who are teaching assistants originally from China is huge. So what the Trump administration is doing … is so counterproductive,” he said.

Similarly, Chinese tourists coming to the US is good for the American people as well as for the Chinese people, too, he added.

Orlins expressed his belief that the people's will will ultimately prevail. “These exchanges and relationships will once again continue to be built better and stronger,” he concluded.