US-China Relations: “The Quarreling Couple That Still Needs to Dance Together”

The Chinese Globalization Association and SFU’s Jack Austin Center for Asia Pacific Business Studies are pleased to present a keynote speech by a distinguished Professor of Management and Global Business, Farok J. Contractor. In this keynote speech, Farok J. Contractor will explore the potential for economic collaboration between China and the United States.

The talk will examine the future of the US-China relationship and policy dilemmas between these two global powers.

The webinar will also feature Eric Werker, William Saywell Professor at the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University, as the discussant.

The webinar will be co-moderated by Jing Li, the Co-Director of the Jack Austin Centre for Asia Pacific Business Studies of SFU’s Beedie School of Business, and by John R. McIntyre, founding Director of the Georgia Tech Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER).

Presentation Abstract
Despite enormous economic complementarities and synergies between the US and China, the current relationship is akin to a quarreling couple that still needs each other because of the 639 billion in bilateral trade in goods and services, and the “Direct Investment Position” of the two countries combined exceeding $ 130 billion, in 2019.

Putting aside nationalism and ambitions – whether political or corporate – there is no structural or fundamental reason why the two economies should not cooperate on a broad range of issues and sectors, ranging from healthcare to green energy to vehicles, for mutual benefit.

However, because of psychosomatic anti-globalization reactions in the US after 2016, and in China an exaggerated sense of nationalism and nursing 178-year-old grievances that bear little relevance to the present day, the two largest economies are now in an artificial state of tension.

This presentation will focus on the potential future relationship and policy dilemmas. Here are just two examples: China’s portraying itself as the new champion of globalization which then also requires its grudging acceptance of universally accepted rules. For the US, one policy dilemma is how to maintain an open-innovation environment while dealing with the real and imagined ghosts of intellectual asset theft. But there remain the vast majority of areas, sectors, and subjects on which the two biggest economies can cooperate, for mutual benefit.

Speaker Bio

Farok J. Contractor (Ph.D.) is a Distinguished Professor of Management and Global Business at Rutgers Business School, a Fellow of the Academy of International Business (AIB), and author of ten books and over 150 scholarly articles. He is the President; Elect of AIB and will serve a three-year term on the Board, assuming the presidency in 2021. He has taught courses and seminars in China over 20 times. He holds a Ph.D. (Managerial Science and Applied Economics) and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School, as well as two engineering degrees M.S. (Michigan), and B.S. (Bombay). Farok Contractor’s research focuses on key issues in International Business, such as corporate alliances, outsourcing and offshoring, valuation of intangible assets, the technology transfer process, licensing, and foreign direct investment. His papers and books have been cited more than 12,000 times and is among the top-ranked contributors of scholarly papers in the field. Farok has chaired or been on the supervisory committees of 19 doctoral dissertations. He has taught at the Wharton School, Copenhagen Business School, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Nanyang Technological University, Indian Institutes of Management (IIM; Ahmedabad and Calcutta), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, XLRI (India), Rutgers business programs in Beijing and Shanghai, Lubin School of Business, and EDHEC in France, and conducted executive seminars on four continents. He served Rutgers as Department Chair, CIBER (Center for International Business Education and Research) Research Director, Ph.D. program coordinator, and other key school and university initiatives. Farok’s blog for managers, students, policymakers, and educated laypeople covering International Business issues at https://globalbusiness.blog has been read by viewers in 171 countries.