Liu Xin

FOX Business’ Trish Regan talks with CGTN’s Liu Xin on trade and intellectual property informal transcript

586000 youtube views as at may 30 9am washington dc time 

TRISH Tonight, I have a special guest joining us all the way from China

To discuss challenges of trade between US and her home country

She is host of the prime time English language television program over seen by The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

She and I might not agree on everything but I believe this is an opportunity to hear a different view on trade negotiations: how is Chinese Party thinking about trade and thinking about the united states?

In interest of transparency I should explain that I don’t speak for anyone apart from myself as host of a Fox business show- my guest however is part of the CCP and that is fine as I say: I welcome different perspectives on this show. With all that in mind I welcome Liu Xin host of  The Point with Liu Xin

Please note there are time delays in satellite we will try not to speak over each other: Xin welcome good to have you here

XIN: thank you Trish for having me : an unprecedented opportunity, I never dreamed I would have this kind of opportunity to speak to you and  to talk to people in America- But Trish I have to get it straight I am not a member of the Communist Party of China – and here today I only speak for myself as Liu Xin a journalist working for CGTN

TRISH: Ok -what’s your current assessment of where we ate with trade talks? do you believe a deal is possible?

XIN I don’t know – I don’t have insider information ; what I know is talks weren’t very successful last time in USA -and now I think both sides are considering wat to do next- but I think China government has made it very clear that unless the us gov made position clear – that unless US government treats negotiation team with respect (without using outside pressure) the possibility of a deal may take a prolonged period of time on both sides

TRISH: I would stress: I want to believe something can get done, these are certainly challenging times with lot of rhetoric out there let me turn to big issue of Intellectual Property rights I think we can agree its not right to take something that is not yours and yet in going through some of these WTO cases

 (screen scrolls ) there is evidence china has stolen hundreds of billion dollars though we should not care if its that’s amount or a few cents- how do us companies operate in china if they are at risk of having this stolen

Wind turbine case

Motorola case

massive hacking campaign

Oreo white case

Iowa seed cirn case

Tappy the robot case

Clifbaw case

Allen ho tva nuclear case

File stirage and chuna national health

Unit 61398 case

Great firewall case

Microm tech case

Recorde future cyberattack case

XIN -well Trish I think you have to ask American businesses whether they wanted to come to China? whether they find coming to China profitable or not?  As far as I understand many American companies have established in China – very profitably, and great majority of them plan to continue to invest in China and explore the Chinese market (new tariffs add uncertainty).  I do not deny there have been IP issues I think that have to be dealt with and I think  that across the Chinese gov and Chinese people and me as individual, there is a clear consensus: without protection on IP rights no country, no individual can be stronger and develop itself

I think that is a consensus across Chinese society -  but there are cases where individuals go and steal all over the world – eg there are cases between US companies suing each other all the time over IP rights- you cannot say because these cases are happening that America is stealing or that china is stealing or the Chinese people is stealing – I think this kind of blanket statement isn’t helpful

TRISH:  well I think we can all agree if you are going to do business with some it has to be based on trust and you dont want anyone stealing your valuable info which you spend decades working on but lets discuss tech companies that work with military and government where the issue is not just individual companies it’s the government itself that may be getting access to the etch (I get China is upset Huawei not being welcomed into us markets)- so let me ask: what if we said hey Huawei come on in but here’s the deal you must share all the incredible tech advantages you have bene working on -share with us. would that be ok?

XIN: if it’s through cooperation mutual learning if you pay for the use of the IP of the tech-why not? we all prosper because we learn from each other. I learnt English because I had American teachers and American friends, I still learn  how to do journalism because I have American editors and  copy editors , so I think it is fine as long as its not illegal – that’s how people get better

TRISH:  you mentioned that you should pay for the acquisition of that – I think in liberal economies IP is governed by a set of laws so we all need to play by the rules if we are to gain trust but I think you bring up some good points let me turn to China as the second largest economy, at what point will China decide to abandon its developing nation status and stop borrowing from World Bank

XIN I think this kind of discussion is going on-indeed people say if you are so big why don’t you grow up? Basically I think we want to grow up. We don’t want to be poor or underdeveloped but how do you define things?-don’t forget we have over 1.4 billion people over three times of USA – we have per capital GDP less than quarter of USA and even less than some countries in Europe – you tell me where shall we put ourselves? This is complicated  … people are looking up to us to do more around the world- we are the wprld’s largest contributor to the UN human peace-keeping mission ,we are giving  aid because we know we have to grown up, and thank you Trish for the reminder

TRISH Lets get to  tariffs -I have seen some of you comments and that China could lower some of its tariffs. In 2016 the average tariff (effectively tax ) charged on American goods in China was 9.9% that was effectively triple what America charged on China goods- so what do you think about getting rid of tariffs altogether would that work?

XIN I think that would be a wonderful idea – I  mean don’t you think for American companies’ products in China would be even cheaper and for American consumers products would be cheaper. I think that would be wonderful and we should work toward it- but you know you talked about rule based system- this is the thing if you want to change the rules it has to be done with mutual consensus not just between china and us - what about the European coming, Japan coming , even the Venezuelans coming- you cant discriminate. – I think last time world agreed on the kind of tariff reductions China should commit to was exactly the result of years of multilateral discussions – the United States led by clarifying what was seen in its interest and to what degree to lower US tarifs (nobody could have got started without that, and then China agreed to modify their tarifs)  - it is all about the decisions of countries according to their self-interest- now I agree 20 years later the question to ask isr what are we going to do?- maybe these old rules need change – lets talks about it but multilaterally

TRISH 1974 section 301 includes rule that enables usa to use tariffs if china was taking IP – I think in some way this is what it all comes down to NOW on trust- I hear you on forced tech transfer and I think  some American companies may have made a mistake in terms of being willing to give some things up in near term—but thus is an issue where the country as a whole needs to step in -we are seeing USA do that perhaps in a way that hasn’t happened before  - I mean this admin has identified the challenge but has been unwilling to tale it on- so we are living in different times- let me ask you how do you define state capitalism?

XIN: we see it as socialism with Chinese characteristics where market forces are to play deciding role In the allocation of resources. A market economy where some state owned companies play important but increasingly smaller role -look at today’s picture:  80% of employment is by private enterprises , 80% of exports by private companies, about 65% if tech by private enterprises, the internet companies are private companies – we want to be dynamic and open

TRISH– as a free trade person, I think openness is the way to pursue, it leads to greater prosperity for both us – win-win – interesting I appreciate you being here

XIN thank you so much if you want to come to china you are welcome any time,  I show you around -thank you Tris for the opportunity

TRISH closing remark:  just to say as I told Xin no one wants a trade war but we have to think ,lng and hard about the right next step