U.S. businesses in China optimistic despite Trump tariffs

Photo taken on June 21, 2018 shows a view of the Lujiazui area in Shanghai, east China. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe)

"For 40 years, commercial ties between the two nations have brought immeasurable benefits to both peoples. Further decoupling will unravel that progress," said the AmCham Shanghai report.

BEIJING, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Close to 78 percent of U.S. businesses surveyed in a report released Thursday were optimistic about the business outlook in China, a rate not seen since before the trade war.

"Five-year optimism levels were almost back to their pre-trade war levels, 2020 revenues exceeded expectations and revenue projections for 2021 are even more upbeat," said the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai (AmCham Shanghai) in its annual China Business Report.

That was echoed by an article by two political scientists published Wednesday in The Washington Post, which concluded that "U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods didn't bring companies back to the United States."

Though "the architects of the trade war" believed that faced with high costs, U.S. and allied businesses would leave China, tariffs backfired on individual customers and small businesses in the United States, said the authors, Jiakun Jack Zhang at the University of Kansas and Somantha A. Vortherms at the University of California at Irvine, in a paper cited by the article.

"For 40 years, commercial ties between the two nations have brought immeasurable benefits to both peoples. Further decoupling will unravel that progress," said the AmCham Shanghai report.