After months of confrontation, the trade conflict between China and the United States cooled as the both parties announced on May 19 they had reached an agreement, including in reducing the US trade deficit with China.

Wei Jianguo, vice-chairman of the board at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said China had "done well in a hand-to-hand fight".

"China has not only explained its overall vision of opening-up to the US but also showed opportunities it can offer to US companies in an open China in the future," he said. "Through dialogue we have solved the problem. Communication was efficient. The US brought forward their requirements, and China will work them out step by step."

He said China was not alone in making compromises, as both parties used wisdom to solve a shared problem and accomplished win-win results.

According to a joint China-US statement, China will expand imports to facilitate trade. Yu Miaojie from Peking University's National School of Development said economic globalization is an irreversible trend, and that by expanding imports China will help promote high-quality growth domestically.

He said expanding imports means consumers will have more varieties of products and services to choose from, which is in line with the emergence of China's middle-income group. It will also lead to an opening-up of the finance sector, which will put pressure on domestic financial institutions to do better.

High-quality economic growth cannot happen without high-quality products. Building China's strength in product quality, as proposed at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, aims to meet the people's demand for better lives and to increase the country's comprehensive strength, said Yan Kun from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

She suggested the "quality strength" strategy has five focus points, namely: Product quality is the foundation; project quality is an important pillar; service quality is key to promoting quality development; standards are the basis to guaranteeing product quality; and a quality management system is needed to improve quality.

During the trade conflict, the US banned the sale of chips to Chinese tech giant ZTE. Although the ban could soon be lifted, the crisis is still a warning to China, especially to its enterprises in science and technology. It reminded people again of the importance of independent research and development.

Lu Dadao, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said independent innovation is the only way to achieve world-class excellence. He noted that there was a misunderstanding in China’s science and technology field about scientific research.

"Many Chinese scientists follow closely the so-called international frontiers and take their foreign counterparts' research directions as their own," he said. "As a result, their research and thoughts are mostly copied from others, and the Chinese academic ideas are limited to the framework set by Westerners.

"The advance of science and technology must go with the actual needs of China’s development," he said.

Trade and technology conflicts between nations are not rare. To prove this point, Zhao Jinping from the State Council's Development Research Center used South Korea as an example.

As another major source of the US trade deficit, South Korea relies on the US market and has long suffered from protectionism. Based on analysis of previous conflicts between the US and South Korea, Zhao said he found South Korea had made more compromises than countermeasures.

"Of course, solving problems through negotiation is the best choice. Making a necessary compromise is a good idea if it wins a long-term, stable environment for development. But any compromise should be conditional," Zhao said.

"The example of South Korea tells us that fully accepting the US price will, on one hand, harm China's economy and add uncertainty to its economic growth, and, on the other hand, give US President Donald Trump the wrong impression that his hawkish unilateralism and protectionism is the only effective way to solve trade issues."

Will it be unilateralism or multilateralism? Opening-up or closing the door? Those are the big questions for today's world. What can China do in the face of such questions? Chen Wenling, chief economist at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, answered this at a recent forum by saying that China is a stabilizer for global peace and order.

"China has offer peaceful solutions for the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, the South China Sea issue, and for the relationship between China, Japan and South Korea," she said. "And it has always handled the China-US issue in an artful way to prevent relations from breaking down. China has maintained its strategic focus, patience, and the ability to plan and issue countermeasures."

In addition, China is introducing innovation in its business models, manufacturing industries, and service and trade patterns, as well as proposing its own solutions, theories, viewpoints, and accumulating experiences, Chen added.

China has achieved rapid economic development thanks to its reform and opening-up policy, which is 40 years old this year. The country's future high-quality growth must also depend on opening-up focusing on the Belt and Road Initiative, said Qiao Zhaohong from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

"China's new round of opening-up centering on the Belt and Road Initiative will add Chinese elements to global economic governance," Qiao said. "Linking the Chinese demands and global high-quality supplies by expanding imports is an important way to achieve win-win results.

"It will help the Chinese people meet their increasing demands for better lives, and provide a vast market for overseas products. At the same time, China will use its own experience of development to lead the reform of the economic globalization mechanism to a more open, inclusive and balanced way."

After reviewing the past 40 years of reform and opening-up, Long Guoqiang from the Development Research Center suggested China must firmly uphold the policy of opening-up regardless of any disturbance from the outside, as well draw up specific plans focusing on development targets.

The focus of opening-up should also be adjusted, keeping pace with the times, while China should take international responsibilities that agree with its development stage and actual abilities, Long added.

Zhang Zhao is a China Watch researcher.

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