China to work with US on achieving a win-win deal

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Wang Qishan, the Vice President of People's Republic of China, said that China remains convinced that greater openness between US and China would be mutually beneficial.

"The Chinese side is ready to have discussion with the US on issues of mutual concern and work for a solution on trade acceptable to both sides," he added.

Vice president Wang Qishan was speaking at the inaugural Bloomberg's New Economy Forum, which gathered 400 business and world leaders in Singapore for a two-day conference.

"The polarizing left and right-leaning populism has manifested itself in political demand, which has led [to] the unilateral policies against globalization and seriously affected the international political ecosystem," said Wang.

Trade tension between Beijing and Washington has been intensifying in the past few months. China's President Xi Jinping on Monday denounced US President Donald Trump's "America First" policies.

"All countries should strive to improve their business environment and solve their own problems," President Xi said at the China International Import Expo (CIIE) taking place this week in Shanghai.

Also attending the New Economy Forum is Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State to former US president Richard Nixon, and a world-renowned foreign policy expert.

"We were not so much trying to make a deal, as to create a situation in which the self interest of China and the United States coincided enough so we could break the pattern of the Cold War," he said, when asked about his involvement with the China-US reconciliation more than 40 years ago.

On the current kerfuffle between Washington and Beijing, Kissinger said he is fairly optimistic that tensions would not escalate beyond repair which would upend global order.

"Some disagreements are inevitable but the objective needs to be that both countries recognize that a fundamental conflict between them will destroy hope for the world order," he said. The sentiment was also expressed by Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan.

The New Economy Forum is taking place amid US's mid-term elections, and comes just a week before ASEAN leaders and their international counterparts due to gather in the city-state for a summit, where the Sino-US trade tension would likely be on the forefront of the agenda.

Speakers and delegates at the conference also talked about how the private sector can help tackle problems such as the changing economic climate, global warming, and gender inequality, among others.

"The more that business leaders talk with one another -- and take the lead in building new partnerships -- the faster we can make progress," said Michael Bloomberg in his opening speech at the conference.

"Lots of forums bring people together to talk. And talk is good. But talk followed by action is better," he added.