Do good signs raise the confidence of China-U.S. ties watchers?
Updated 13:13, 26-Oct-2019
World Insight with Tian Wei
01:28

"Any progress that can be made to find a solution to the trade war, if you will, is a good thing," said Julia Chang Bloch, the first Asian American to hold the rank of ambassadorship in American history.

On October 11, the latest round of China-U.S. trade talks wrapped up in Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump met with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, and urged both sides to finalize the text of the deal at an early date and move forward with future negotiations. Progress was made in areas including agriculture, intellectual property rights, currency exchange rates, financial services, and expansion of trade and technology transfers. CGTN's Senior Correspondent Tian Wei talked to Julia Chang Bloch about that progress and signals. Bloch thinks it is a time out and gives both sides more time to consider and hopefully do better the next time.

However, some say the nature of the negotiation is not about trade. It could be about the overall logic in the way China and the U.S. interact, even after this trade negotiation. Also there are some people who believe the purpose of this negotiation from the America's current administration is not about finding a way out of trade issues, but rather to decouple from China.

Bloch doesn't completely agree with it, because she thinks there is true frustration in the U.S. and the U.S. seeks China to open market access. "I think, again, China should understand that frustration just erupted. Otherwise there would not be consensus. Right now, America is quite polarized in every which way. But on China, the Republicans and the Democrats agree. There cannot be that kind of consensus if there isn't that real frustration and my concern is that I hope that frustration is not permanent, that we have not seen the tipping point. We're nearing it, but that we're not going to go over it," she said. 

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Ambassador Bloch's personal journey resembles that of many Asian Americans. She was born in China and moved to the U.S. when she was nine. Having grown up in San Francisco, and obtaining degrees from some of the most prestigious American institutions, Bloch's careers includes serving as vice president in corporations to heading grant-making foundations. She is now the president of the U.S.-China Education Trust, a program devoted to promoting American Studies in China. 

When it comes to the historical phenomenon of Chinese Americans being discriminated, it seems that Bloch is the right person to tell the story. She said it is not a new thing for Chinese in the U.S. to suffer prejudice, and limits on Chinese immigration to the U.S. was only lifted in 1965. But she thinks that Chinese people have tried and also have succeeded in many cases. 

"Having said that, I think the current issue with respect to Chinese Americans being further discriminated against is due to the imbalance that security and free exchange of research. People to people exchange that has been affected, what has happened is the conflict in China-U.S. relations in the political, strategic, and economic arenas have spilled over into people to people exchange." said Bloch.

World Insight with Tian Wei is a 45-minute international platform for debate and intelligent discussion. It is the meeting point for both highly influential and rising voices, facilitated by host, Tian Wei. 

Schedule: Monday-Saturday

Time (GMT): 1415, 2015

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