The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has released a report aimed at offering U.S. policymakers recommendations on fostering cooperation between the United States and China. The report, shared on November 20, focuses on international trade, finance, and development amid ongoing tensions.
In the document titled "Managing U.S.-China Tensions over the Global Economic Order," CSIS addresses key issues such as economic competition, security, and finance. The report features contributions from both American and Chinese scholars and proposes solutions to challenges in the bilateral relationship. CSIS acknowledges the difficulties posed by conflicting views on the rules-based liberal international economic order but emphasizes the necessity for both nations to make adjustments and find common ground.
According to CSIS, one of the strategies to address economic competition involves fostering structural rebalancing in China by redirecting fiscal resources towards Chinese households. This could be achieved through measures like expanding access to public services in urban areas and raising pensions. Additionally, CSIS suggests ending the trade war through either a grand bargain—wherein the U.S. eliminates tariffs in exchange for China ending intellectual property theft—or a "baby steps" approach involving small confidence-building measures.
To manage trade frictions, CSIS recommends defining boundaries of competition, maintaining supply chain stability, and discussing trade rulemaking both bilaterally and multilaterally. In terms of economic security, CSIS advises managing export controls by adjusting thresholds according to industry advances and launching a multilateral controls initiative.
Furthermore, CSIS advocates for cooperation on data governance by seeking consensus on international standards for data protection and secure transmission. It also proposes establishing a transient arrangement to prevent decoupling in science and technology cooperation by categorizing projects based on national security sensitivity.
In finance, CSIS suggests that both countries could enhance the operational independence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by strengthening qualified majority voting and adopting stricter rules for lending to economies at war.
The Peterson Institute for International Economics notes that economic rivalry between the U.S. and China escalated into a "full-blown economic and trade war" in 2017, characterized by actions such as tariffs met with retaliatory measures.
CSIS is described as a bipartisan nonprofit policy research organization founded in 1962.
