Amid the China-U.S. trade war, other nations are focusing on bilateral economic ties between the two. This is the focus of a symposium hosted by think tanks from both countries and Singapore. About 80 delegates from 10 nations are discussing key issues on this matter, especially the current trade war.

"All-out conflict between the two countries would be disastrous not only for Asia but for the world," says Singapore's emeritus senior minister, Goh Chok Tong, speaking at the opening ceremony of the event. He feels the best way forward is to forge a common cause for the two nations. "To borrow a term from Dean Danny Quah of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, our common cause is to get the U.S. and China to play a positive-sum game, not a zero-sum game," he said.

Former Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan talked about how harmful the "decoupling China" proposal is. He says, "From the macroeconomic perspective, decoupling will benefit neither oneself nor others. It will lead to a manmade breakdown of the global value chain. It doesn't comply with the trends or features of the era of the digital economy, and damages the global supply of public goods." 

Zeng also says China and the U.S. both enjoy important positions in the global supply chain, industrial chain and value chain. If one forcefully gets out of the systems, that will hurt the other as well as itself. For instance, the U.S. threatened to cut off the chip supply to Huawei. It seems like a blow only to Huawei, but actually, it has gravely undermined American companies, such as Qualcomm, Broadcom, and Intel which are Huawei chip suppliers.

Zeng stressed that China doesn't intend to challenge the U.S., neither does it want to take the place of the U.S. The U.S. can't control China, nor can it stop China's development. Both countries have their own development goals, but that doesn't mean it is a zero-sum game. Instead, both countries can complement and reinforce each another.