By Mark Magnier

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Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with US business, academic and civic leaders on Thursday in New York, urging them to use their influence to help improve troubled relations between the two economic giants.
Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly at a private meeting, Li said bilateral ties needed to be actively fostered.
Their “steady development requires our two governments to work in the same direction,” said Li, addressing representatives from the National Committee on US-China Relations and the US-China Business Council. “These are all very important organisations that serve as a bond between the two countries.”
Those bonds have frayed noticeably, however, since the start of US President Donald Trump’s second term in January. Within weeks, a tit-for-tat trade war saw his administration impose tariffs as high as 145 per cent on all Chinese imports before a temporary truce wound those down to around 30 per cent pending a November 10 US-imposed deadline.

Adding to the list of bilateral irritants, Washington also imposed restrictions on Chinese investments into the US, announced restrictions on Chinese student visas and imposed additional trade penalties on China over its manufacture of ingredients used in making illegal and highly addictive fentanyl.
China has ramped up its own tariffs and slowed exports of rare earth minerals used in a wide range of tech products.
Ties have stabilised somewhat of late. Last week, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke on the phone and offered to meet in person in South Korea on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.
On Thursday, Li thanked those seated around a rectangular table, including executives from FedEx and representatives from the US Chamber of Commerce and Council on Foreign Relations, for their “active support for China-US relations” and knowledge of the Chinese economy.
Li’s Thursday outreach, in which he urged participants to speak with “full sincerity and candour”, appeared targeted largely at long-standing Beijing supporters, however, rather than the growing numbers of Americans increasingly wary of China as rhetoric flies across the Pacific in both directions.
Over three-quarters of Americans hold an unfavourable view of China, according to a Pew Research Center poll released in April. Although that is slightly lower than the 81 per cent recorded a year earlier, it compares with some 55 per cent holding that view a decade ago.
Polling in China, which is difficult to carry out given media and other government restrictions, suggests a parallel hardening of Chinese views towards the US.
But Beijing has largely concluded that widespread US popular support, while a ballast for the US-China relationship, is less important at this juncture than building support among business leaders whom Trump listens to, said Sourabh Gupta, senior fellow at the Institute for China-America Studies in Washington.
“Li Qiang is not that person who has that kind of name recognition to be able to do that in America,” said Gupta.
“The focus is more on reaching the necessary people who can help further that conversation with the Trump administration,” he added. “They’re doing all the things that the business community would want them to do, to show that they’re doing from their side what they can to create good vibes.”
Among those who attended Thursday’s meeting were senior corporate executives from Goldman Sachs, Estée Lauder, Visa, Las Vegas Sands, Pfizer, and Citadel Securities, as well as Harvard professor Graham Allison.
“It is essential to American interests that business leaders and policy experts have the opportunity to discuss key issues, address concerns and maintain working relationships with Chinese leaders,” said Stephen Orlins, the National Committee’s president, in a statement.
The meeting included discussions on trade, market access, moves aimed at “creating a level playing field for US companies in China”, efforts to further a “predictable and stable business environment” and the need for ongoing dialogue between senior US and Chinese leaders, attendees said.
Li, China’s second-ranking member on the Politburo Standing Committee, also told US executives during the closed-door meeting that China has the confidence and ability to maintain stable and healthy economic development and create more opportunities for enterprises from around the world, including US companies, according to Xinhua.

Li, a former Shanghai Communist Party secretary known for his pro-business policies and understated manner, is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly on Friday. His remarks are expected to focus on the importance of multilateralism, the UN Charter and global order – highlighting China’s confident, different approach to global affairs than America’s under Trump.
“During this season when the UNGA is for the first time with Donald Trump in his second avatar, they’re just showing that, look, we are responsible people, China is a responsible country,” added Gupta.
During a 56-minute speech on Tuesday that far exceeded his 15-minute allotted time, the mercurial US president assailed the UN, called some member states “stupid” for their governance approach and riffed about broken escalators and what flooring the UN building should install.
“I don’t say that in a braggadocios way, but it’s true,” Trump said. “I’ve been right about everything.”