This is a book about the economic integration of China and the United States. This book tells how the two most powerful economies in the world today go beyond conventional wisdom to reshape the global system. The outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008 highlighted the importance of Sino-US integration.The integration of China and the United States is very important not only to the prosperity of China and the United States, but also to the prosperity of the entire world.As the world begins to recover from the crisis and move into the future, Sino-US relations will determine whether the global economy will continue to prosper or fall into unstable growth in the next few decades.

In the first few months of 2009, the US government spent more than $1 trillion and introduced tax cuts to stimulate the dying economy.The source of funding from the U.S. government has not attracted considerable attention.Also during these months, in order to guarantee the implementation of the government's various economic stimulus plans, the US Treasury Department issued new bonds worth hundreds of billions of dollars.Like every bond issue, this one was quiet, drawing little media attention.However, the lack of attention does not mean that the bond issue is not important.Americans are not the main buyers, with U.S. businesses short of cash and U.S. consumers unable to buy government bonds because they are too busy repaying their loans. In 2007, when the crisis had not yet broken out but the clouds began to gather, the main buyer of US bonds was China; in 2008, when the global credit crisis broke out, the main buyer of US bonds was still China; in 2009, as in the previous two years, the US The most important buyer of bonds is of course also China.

In 2008, the global financial system nearly collapsed, the effects of which continued into 2009.Against this background, the unique relationship between China and the United States has become the core force driving the development of the world economy.China is the largest creditor to the United States, which desperately needs funds to repair an economy damaged by credit and housing bubbles.The relationship between the two countries is much more complex than that, involving many more layers.Chinese lending and U.S. spending constitute one layer of interaction between the two countries.Through this interaction, U.S. companies can regroup and open up the Chinese market; U.S. factories thrive because Chinese consumers demand their products.From interest rates to inflation to the balance of global power, this kind of interaction between China and the United States is unexpected and unpredictable. It is in this way that China and the United States jointly shape the pattern of the world economy.

If there is no interdependence between China and the United States, today's world economic turmoil will be even more serious.Although Americans have many worries about the imbalance in Sino-US trade, when the US financial system was almost collapsed due to the outbreak of the credit crisis, it was China's trillions of dollars in trade surplus with the United States that provided it. Backing, which played a key role in the economic recovery of the United States.There have been many disasters in the history of the United States.Economic crises have erupted every once in a while since the founding of the United States.But a striking feature of the current crisis is the interdependence of the world's two most important economies.Both economies are economic superpowers, so their fusion is a super fusion.Understanding this super-convergence is not only the basis for us to judge the future, but also the basis for us to solve current problems.

For most of the 2000s, the United States focused its attention on addressing the threat of terrorism, dealing with two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and managing tensions with the West in parts of the Muslim world up.The United States has certainly noticed China's rise as an economic power, but the urgency of its attention is not commensurate with its importance.However, the rise of China, and how China rises, is the fulcrum for the future of both China and the United States and the entire global system.The international community may continue to face the threat of terrorism, but Sino-US relations are the most important issue in the 21st century.The stakes in Sino-US relations lie in the economic field, not in the military field.Sino-US relations will have a greater impact on the lives of ordinary workers in Ohio, US, or Shenzhen, China, than US battles with Al Qaeda in the mountains of Pakistan.

The economic pain caused by the economic crisis has raised strong doubts about the global financial system.The global financial system was created by the United States, and it has problems because of the United States.Many are starting to rethink America's global role, wondering whether the crisis marks a decline in American power.But one thing that most people still firmly believe in is that the world today is still a combination of countries, markets and companies.This was true for most of the 20th century.However, things are different now.The rise of China has actually changed that.The most important issues in the world today are still under-articulated, in large part because many people do not yet recognize how the world is changing.In short, over the past 20 years, China and the United States have become an intertwined and integrated super-economy - "China America".

A system like "Central America" ​​has almost no precedent, and the only comparable system is the European Union.The difference between the two is that the establishment of the European Union is the result of the careful efforts of several generations of leaders of its member states, while the development of "Central America" ​​is completely unintentional.The policies implemented by the governments of China and the United States are actually not conducive to the formation of a "China-America". "Sino-America" ​​affects the lives of the people of the two countries, and judging from the public opinion of the two countries, the formation of "Sino-America" ​​is not what the people of the two countries want to see. "Central America" ​​has not been widely recognized, recognized and recognized, and it is not what people want to appear.

Whether one wishes to see such an outcome or not, the economic integration of China and the United States is changing the face of the world.In the past 10 years of economic development, nothing has been more meaningful than the integration of China and the United States.The reality has not developed according to people's expectations, and almost no one can make an accurate judgment on the reality. The occurrence of the financial crisis in 2008 made many people doubt the credibility of various economic forecasting tools and models, because they did not predict the bursting of the real estate bubble.But the problem is not just with these quantitative models, but also with our basic understanding of how the economic system functions.Many governments, especially those of powerful and prosperous economies, continue to follow their traditional practices even as their economic measures become increasingly dependent on external forces outside their control , also believes that domestic economic policy is entirely within the scope of its sovereignty.But the multi-trillion-dollar economic stimulus plan that the U.S. government has spent would not be possible if China is unwilling to buy U.S. Treasuries.If American consumers hadn't bought a lot of Chinese goods in the past 20 years, and China hadn't gained a lot of experience from American and foreign companies operating in China, China would not have been able to generate a large surplus from trade with the United States.

This book will trace the trajectory of the formation of "Central America", telling the story of how two once-antagonistic countries became interdependent in the 1990s and achieved integration in the first decade of the 21st century. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, China's economic modernization process continued to advance.From this stage, American culture has begun to exert influence in China.The kindly smiling face of Colonel Sanders, the founder of KFC, is one of the symbols of American culture that has an influence on the minds of Chinese people.

KFC entered the Chinese market in the late 1980s and quickly became one of the most popular brands, gaining widespread recognition.This love and recognition is not really derived from KFC's food itself, but from desire and dreams.The popularity of American fried chicken in the Chinese market symbolizes the Chinese people's acceptance of the market and the global economy, symbolizing the hope of wealth and prosperity, which means that economic opening will affect China's future. A company like KFC not only achieved the promotion of its American business model in China, but also changed the global economic system, which is a history that has not been written in the past 20 years.The connection between multinational corporations and the Chinese market is a little strange at first, but history has been written for many periods by unusual and unexpected alliances. In the late 1980s and 1990s, companies such as Procter & Gamble, KFC, Avon, Nike, General Electric, Siemens, and IBM successively came to China, and they established a brand-new international trade, product, and capital flow system.Yes, the US and Europe buy cheap retail goods made in China, and China itself is a huge consumer market for foreign imports and services, especially knowledge.This point has received relatively little attention, but is no less important.

Around the world, the fallout from the system has sparked outrage.In the US and Europe, people blame China for job losses. The economic crisis in 2008 and 2009 made Americans feel that the economic sovereignty of the United States has been severely eroded, and China's economic strength has increased significantly.The Chinese view is more optimistic, but there are also concerns about closer cooperation with the West and the United States. Even after acknowledging the fact that the two countries depend on each other, the Chinese and Americans still see each other as formidable competitors. In 2009, China made no secret of its accusations against Wall Street, blaming the US for the economic crisis.However, China should also assume its responsibilities in the global economy.America also has its own blind spots. In 2008, the U.S. intelligence community emphasized in its annual global threat assessment that China's strength is rising, and China may use economic leverage to achieve its goal of leading the world. In early 2009, the Pentagon also warned that China was developing new weapons for military confrontation with the United States in the Pacific region. In the past, a country often had an "us versus them" attitude when engaging with the rest of the world, thinking that the relationship between countries was always separate and antagonistic.Now, not only is such a view outdated, but clinging to it has serious consequences—mostly negative.The current global economic system is different than ever before.National economic data do not reflect the interdependence of countries, but exaggerate the bizarre and false notion that each country is economically independent.The longer Americans cling to old theories and old ways, the longer it will take to figure out what's going on.The fusion of China and the United States is more important in predicting the future than most economic and political theories that have guided government, academic, and business leaders for the past century. There are at least two possibilities for the future.Either the U.S. (and to some extent Europe) cooperates with China to perfect and develop the system to the mutual benefit of both parties, or go back to the old ways and treat every cent of "their" gains as What "we" lost.For the United States, if it chooses to accept interdependence with China, the United States can not only overcome current challenges and maintain prosperity, but also greatly increase prosperity in the coming decades.Although this may mean a relative change in the United States' global position, the benefits to the United States far outweigh the costs. However, now the US has a "China problem".The issue is not one of addressing the challenges posed by China's economic rise, as is often assumed, but one of confronting China's power.In the past half century, the United States has been committed to the construction of the global capitalist system.Now, however, when such a system has been established, the United States seems to forget that capitalism means risk and sometimes chaos, and that the United States is not born with global status. Should we accept or reject the integration of China and the United States and its impact? This is the fundamental problem facing the United States.Although the election of Barack Obama has meant that Americans have returned to a more pragmatic approach to international issues and a wiser recognition of the limits of US economic and military power, many Americans cling to tradition The idea that the United States can only be called a superpower if it is stronger than any other country.What might this lead to? The result is that Americans do not realize the flaws of this traditional thinking framework, but continue to use the old thinking mode and continue to compete with China on the road to its rise.Such a result is not good.What the United States ultimately restricts is not China's development, but the development of the United States itself.In response, China will form partnerships with other countries and institutions in the world that are more willing to cooperate with it, including American companies.This will weaken the ties of American businesses to the United States, and sooner or later will make this ties only in name, if not more than that.The United States wants to prevent China from supplanting its global position, only to weaken its own position. Because corporations have long been the most obvious beneficiaries of Sino-American hyper-convergence, it is easy to dismiss Sino-American integration simply as yet another example of capitalism and corporations catering to the interests of the few while ignoring the interests of the many.Ordinary people are angry with Wall Street and greedy corporations, because they will think that Wall Street and these corporations have made amazing profits from Sino-US integration, while most ordinary people are facing the pressure of lower income and declining purchasing power.Moreover, it turns out that these companies are not only greedy for money, but also incompetent, causing the entire financial system to be in jeopardy. It is an indisputable fact that American companies have reaped staggering profits from China's economic development.For more than 5 years, I was in charge of managing an investment fund company, which held mostly stocks of Chinese companies, American companies and multinational companies that benefited from China.Later, for nearly seven years, I also helped manage an asset management firm in New York.Before entering the financial industry, I also spent many years researching and teaching international relations.These experiences have helped me form my point of view.Whether people want to see China rise or not, China's rise is a fact.The way China, the United States, and other important members of the international system treat China's rise will determine the trajectory of the world in the 21st century. It is easy to attribute China's rise to the extraordinary wisdom and foresight of the Chinese leaders, who have learned the lessons of the ups and downs of thousands of years of history and developed the essence into practical materialist policies.They respect reality and use it as a necessary means of preventing chaos.At the same time, they recognize the necessity of reform and the only way out for fundamental stability.Chinese leaders have indeed learned lessons from China's history, from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the upheavals in Eastern Europe.They have been working hard to manage China, a huge country with a population of 1.3 billion, and have made achievements beyond imagination.Although Americans cannot deny that China still faces many challenges because of these successes, Chinese leaders have led hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, improved people's living standards, and in just a few decades China's industrial economy was established in a short time.Regardless of whether Americans are willing to see China's success or not, China's success is a fact, just like the sun will always rise. Just as the U.S. needs to realize that its old "us vs. them" mindset is no longer relevant in today's world, so China needs to change its perception of its place in the international community - China can no longer cling to its traditional self-perception , can no longer think of itself as just a developing country that is just beginning to rank among the major countries of the world.China's position in the global system is more central than China believes.China's status today is precisely due to the integration of China and the United States. In the spring of 2009, Chinese leaders said they wanted to reduce their dependence on the dollar.It makes sense to do so.But at the same time, China continues to buy U.S. Treasuries and lend to the United States.China's desire for autonomy is at odds with the reality of China's interdependence with the United States. The reality of "Central America" ​​has changed China more than it has changed the United States and the rest of the world. Although China and the United States are the main members of this new system, they are not the only ones playing a role in this system.Many European companies play a major role, as do companies from many resource-rich countries, from Latin American countries to Australia and Russia.China and the United States have provided the greatest support for "China America", but "China America" ​​has become a global phenomenon, and its influence spreads all over the world.India is also following a unique path of development and may eventually have the same impact on the world as today's "Central America", but at present, this has not become a reality. Nearly 20 years of development have created "Central America".The question now is: Where is America going in the future?US decline, China rise?Decline of the West, Rise of the East?Americans have reached a certain level of awareness of this.China is well-capitalized, with reserves of two trillion U.S. dollars; the U.S. is capital-poor, and its debts continue to increase in order to get out of the predicament.Although the former British Empire has declined, and the Roman Empire has also come to an end after its prosperity, we cannot predict the future fate of the United States or China from this.The road for China to lead the world may not be as smooth as history predicts, and it may not be exactly as people expected.If "Central America" ​​has exceeded our imagination, then we should understand that the future may surprise us, and this is a wise prediction. However, it must now be clear that it is futile to try to stop the pace of change.The global status and role of the United States is changing, and no one knows whether this change is good or bad.It is also an indisputable fact that China is becoming a core country in the world.But does the rise of one country necessarily mean the decline of another?Will the future world always consist of economically independent nation-states?The answers to these questions are less certain.On the contrary, it would be surprising if the world in the mid-21st century remained the same as it was in the mid-20th century, if the way we understand the world did not change significantly. If someone tries to impose on the world at the end of the 20th century the basic problems facing European society in the 16th century, discussing the Reformation, the divine right of kings, whether the earth is round or square, the result will be sad, absurd and comical.The development of technology has accelerated the changes in the world, and the changes are happening at a dizzying speed. The world created by human beings will be a different world, a new world, and a surprising world.We always reap the consequences of believing that the future will face challenges similar to those of the present; we always assume that the war we are fighting is the last one, without foreseeing that new wars will break out.Whether we call these "cages of old ideas," "black swan dangers," or simply "human inability to cope with the unknown," these are ongoing challenges we face. Understanding the unique fusion of China and the United States is essential to our understanding of the world today.The way we treat the integration of China and the United States will determine whether the future world can continue the prosperity of the past 20 years, and whether the Sino-US relationship that has brought good news to China, the United States and the people of the world can continue to develop and bring more prosperity. much well-being.The significance of the integration of China and the United States is extraordinary. If we want to successfully meet the challenges we face today, we need to have a clearer understanding of today's trends. "Central America" ​​is a new phenomenon, but it's not new.Before we look to the future, we need to go back in history to understand the beginning of Sino-US integration.