2021 American Business in China White Paper

At a Glance

US-China economic relations remain deeply intertwined. Two-way bilateral trade in goods totaled US $560 billion in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. China is among the largest and fastest growing markets in the world and constitutes an important market for US products and services. China’s market also has a robust R&D and innovation ecosystem, and many leading American companies obtain a substantial portion of their revenue from the China market. China is a key source and supplier of a vast number of products and components, often at low cost, which delivers benefits to US producers and consumers.

In 2020, many of the guardrails in the US-China relationship were further damaged and the bilateral relationship continued to deteriorate in all spheres: economic and trade, national security, law enforcement, news and media, and people-to-people bilateral exchange. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated many of these trends, deepened mistrust between the two sides, and led to a renewed focus on supply chain security, reshoring, and domestic manufacturing. Meanwhile, many longstanding economic and commercial issues that plague the foreign business community remain unaddressed, including China’s long-standing support for its state-owned enterprises (SOEs), preferential treatment for domestically-invested enterprises under various industrial policies, preferences for domestic technologies and products over foreign technologies and products in the procurement process, strict cybersecurity and data localization requirements, and cyber intrusions.

Consequently, a majority of our members reported “US-China bilateral tensions” had become the top challenge to doing business in China. In last year’s White Paper, we noted that 2019 had been a turbulent year due to the imposition of bilateral tariffs and deteriorating bilateral relations. Events in 2020 only served to compound those trends, while COVID-19 created a whole new set of challenges. AmCham China acknowledges that the US-China relationship is undergoing a fundamental recalibration and acknowledges the legitimate right of all countries to define and protect their national security. We remain opposed to any effort at outright decoupling of the US-China relationship. The costs of decoupling from losing trade and foreign investment benefits for both countries would be significant and are unlikely to generate clear winners. In order to be globally competitive, American producers and service providers must be able to compete in the China market on a level playing field. Nevertheless, extensive market access barriers, protectionism, an opaque regulatory system, and discriminatory enforcement continue to hinder the operations of US business in China today.

概 述

中美经贸关系依然紧密交织，尽管受到全球性新冠疫情的影响，2020 年双边货物贸易总额依然达到了5600亿美元。中国是世界上规模最大和发展速度最快的市场之一，是美国出口产品和服务的主要市场。中国市场还拥有强大的研发和创新生态系统，许多美国龙头企业的大部分收入都来自于中国市场。中国是大量产品和零部件的重要来源和供应商，通常这些产品及零部件成本低廉，美国生产商和消费者因此从中受益。

2020 年，中美关系中的许多防护系统进一步遭到破坏，双边关系在以下领域呈持续恶化势头，例如，经贸、国家安全、执法、新闻和媒体以及人文交流。新冠疫情加速了上述关系的恶化趋势，加深了双方不信任感，并令双方重新将关注点集中在供应链安全、企业回流和国内制造业领域。与此同时，许多长期困扰外商界的营商问题仍未得到解决，其中包括中国长期以来对其国有企业的扶持，各种产业政策面向内资企业的优待，采购过程中的优惠力度相较于外国技术和产品而言对待国内技术和产品力度更大，严密的网络安全和数据本地化要求，以及网络入侵等。

因此，大多数成员均指出“中美双边关系紧张” 已成为在中国开展业务的首要挑战。在去年的白皮书中，中国美国商会（以下简称“商会”）指出，由于征收双边关税和恶化的双边关系，2019 年是动荡的一年。 2020 年所发生的事件只会使这些趋势更加复杂，但新冠疫情则带来了一系列全新的挑战。商会承认中美关系从根本上正在经历重新调整，并承认所有国家界定和保护其国家安全的合法权利。商会坚决反对做出任何与完善中美关系彻底脱钩的努力。脱钩会导致两国在贸易和外国投资上利益损失巨大，因此两方都不可能在这场博弈中成为赢家。为了增加全球竞争力，美国生产商和服务提供商必须能够在中国市场上公平展开竞争。然而，广泛的市场准入壁垒、保护主义、不透明的监管体系和歧视性的执法仍然阻碍着美国企业在中国的经营。