Fostering China-US cooperation

Charles Morrison, the longest-serving East-West Center president, will soon retire. He is a firm believer in China-US engagement and cooperation. chen weihua / China Daily

For Charles Morrison, president of the East-West Center (EWC), cooperation between the United States and China is essential in tackling global problems.

EWC is an education and research organization that was established by the US Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific and the US.

In Morrison's views, the US cannot do it alone anymore in a lot of areas, and China is not envisioned to do it alone.

"But when we work together, there is a lot more we can accomplish," he told China Daily in his office on July 1.

Like many people in the two countries and the world, Morrison cited the US agreement on climate change as "a good example of how the US and China work together, then we can provide a much stronger impetus for the whole world".

Several landmark agreements reached by China and the US on climate change since June 2013, when President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama met in the Sunnylands retreat in California, have been widely regarded as instrumental to the historic Paris Agreement signed last December by 195 countries.

Morrison, an expert on economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region, believes that China and the US are approaching the same issues, such as the One Belt One Road (OBOR) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), in different ways.

The Americans concentrate on the legal framework, such as in making WTO and TPP very legalistic agreements. But he said China focuses on connectivity, on building things.

"Both are good," he said.