China, U.S. can inject impetus into recovery

As the world's two largest economies, China and the United States can benefit businesses on both sides and inject fresh momentum into global economic recovery by finding more common ground and working together to manage differences, said economists and business executives. 

The structural complementarity between the two nations, which spans manufacturing, technology and services, is too significant to be disrupted by trade frictions, they added.

"American companies are continuing to invest. American companies aren't going anywhere," said Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, countering the narrative that U.S. businesses are leaving China.

"It's not just the China market anymore; it's the China platform," he said, noting that the platform encompasses everything — from consumer access and partnerships with local enterprises to research and development and supply chain resilience — which is "only becoming more important".

Stein emphasized that coming to China will help U.S. business leaders develop a clearer view and a more realistic understanding of where China stands. Until that happens, it is easy to imagine dangers and concerns that may not be as serious as they seem, he said. "Twenty-five years ago, no one came to China to do R&D. Now what I'm seeing is that the best companies are coming and doing some of their most important R&D," he added.

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, foreign direct investment in China's high-tech industries surged 30.7 percent year-on-year to 102.73 billion yuan ($15.12 billion) in the first quarter of 2026, pushing the sector's share in total FDI to 41.2 percent.

Eric Zheng, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, said that if U.S. companies want to remain globally competitive, they should invest in China. "A U.S. company that can thrive in China can succeed in many other markets around the world. The experience and capabilities built here can be directly applied elsewhere," he said.

Zheng added that the complementarity of the U.S.-China economic relationship means that stable and predictable bilateral trade ties serve the fundamental interests of both nations and greatly benefit businesses on both sides.

Geoff Martha, chairman and CEO of the U.S.-based medical technology company Medtronic, said that China is not only a market with the potential to become the world's largest market for medical technology, but also a valuable partner.

"That commitment is reflected in our long-term investments," he said. "We see strong alignment between China's focus on new quality productive forces and Medtronic's work to develop next-generation technologies that can improve care and expand access for patients."

Surveys indicate that U.S. businesses prefer stability over confrontation. In late April, a white paper released by the American Chamber of Commerce in China noted that more than half of U.S. companies in China still rank the country among their top three global investment destinations.

Liao Fan, director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Economics and Politics, said that despite years of trade tensions and escalating rhetoric, the underlying economic logic of China-U.S. cooperation remains intact.

"You cannot decouple two economies that have been interwoven together over decades through investment, supply chain integration and market interdependence. The cost of separation would be measured in trillions of dollars and millions of jobs," Liao said.

Zhang Yansheng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research, noted that China and the U.S. are not only very important for each other, but their relationship is of utmost importance for the world.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the combined nominal GDP of China and the U.S. accounted for nearly 45 percent of the global economy in 2025. A report released in March by the U.S.-based McKinsey Global Institute also showed that the decline in U.S.-China trade reduced global trade growth by around 10 percent last year.

He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Beijing-based think tank Center for China and Globalization, said that for the relationship to be truly fair and mutually beneficial, the U.S. must remove the unreasonable restrictions it has imposed on China.