SFC Correspondent Shi Shi, Li Yinong in Shanghai

Many American companies recognize that being rooted in China is essential to understanding market trends and participating in innovation. As Sean Stein, President of the U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC), in an exclusive interview with SFC reporter explained, “Companies want to be here, so they can see what's happening and take part in that innovation.”

At the end of July,  Stein visited China as part of a delegation from the USCBC, led by its board chair Rajesh Subramaniam. According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the delegation also included Thermo Fisher Scientific Chairman Marc N. Casper, Otis Worldwide Corporation Chair Judy Marks, Goldman Sachs President and COO John E. Waldron, Senior Vice President of the Boeing Company and President of Boeing Global Brendan Nelson, founder and Vice Chair of United Family Healthcare Roberta Lipson, Apple Inc. COO Sabih Khan, among others.

Stein told SFC that the Chinese government is very pragmatic and eager to address the challenges and difficulties faced by foreign enterprises in China, and is actively working to further improve business environment. “Every board member I spoke to was very happy. And they said, ‘We need to make sure we do this again next year.’ I think they were very happy,” Stein said.

Amid growing global trade uncertainties, the USCBC’s China visit helped convey American companies’ expectations and support for China-US economic and trade relations, as well as their confidence in the Chinese market.

The same sentiment is shared by USCBC’s 2025 Member Survey release on July 16, which shows that nearly all surveyed U.S. companies believe losing access to the Chinese market would weaken their global competitiveness.

Stein emphasized that although American companies are readjusting their supply chains, this does not mean they intend to leave China. “They are committed to China, and they're not leaving China”.

Encouraging More Investment into China

SFC: Could you please introduce the US-China Business Council?

Sean Stein: The thing that's really important is USCBC represents businesses from the United States that do business in China, and many of our members are very large, successful American company that's been in China for decades.

And what we do is: if we wish China can improve the investment climate in further to make it easier to have more foreign investment and to do better business here, we’ll tell the Chinese officials. It’s the same thing in America. We will tell the U.S. government: this is a problem, you can fix it. So we can be very critical of both governments. Both the American side and the Chinese side appreciate that we're going to tell them what business actually thinks, and they value that.

SFC: What is the main purpose of USCBC leading a senior U.S. business delegation to China on this visit?

Sean Stein: Every year, we bring members of our board to China. Not the whole board, but we bring about one-third of our board to China every year. And we try to bring companies from every sector. So we'll bring companies from health and life sciences, technology, financial services, manufacturing, services, etc.

We brought such a diverse group of CEOs to come and meet with the Chinese officials to do a couple of things. One thing is to talk about what we're doing to promote engagement between the two countries. Another thing is to talk about the positive things and the challenges of doing business in China. Because we want more American companies, more global companies, to come and invest in China, and to be successful. And so does China. We want to talk about what the challenges are, and how we can fix those challenges so it's easier to have investment. We also want to talk about specific issues for companies, and for members.

We met with a wide variety of Chinese government officials to talk about how we strengthen the relationship, how we create a better investment environment, how we fix problems, and how we can get a more positive relationship between the U.S. and China.

SFC: What messages have you received from Chinese government officials at the meeting?

Sean Stein: I think the big message from China was that China continues to welcome responsible foreign investment and would like to have a better relationship with the United States. Chinese officials wish to resolve problems and impediments to make China a better place to invest for foreign companies. And people-to-people exchange is also important in terms of investing in the long-term relationship between the United States and China.

SFC: There are indeed some challenges in the current people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.S., especially among international students. What is your view on this?

Sean Stein: We need to get more Chinese students to go to the United States, so they can understand it. And it's even true we need more Americans to come here.

We often get asked, is it safe to go study in China? Is it safe to go do business in China? And what I always say, especially for students, is, my daughter goes to school here. Of course it's safe. I have no concerns at all. My daughter is in her second year at NYU Shanghai. She got admitted to many very famous colleges and universities in America and she chose NYU Shanghai. She likes Shanghai, and she feels safe here.

I think the same is true for Chinese parents and Chinese kids going to America. They're like, “America has so many guns. America has so much violence,” I guess that's right in a way, but I've never seen any of this. So yes, it happens—but it's not so common. I think that both sides are more afraid than they need to be.

So when we bring our board and meet with the Chinese government, we try to be very objective. We talk about things that are real issues, but again, we see ourselves as being very supportive.

We're friends of China. Our belief is that China wants more investment, and China wants to improve the environment better. So our suggestions and communications are important for the Chinese officials. 

SFC: What messages has the USCBC conveyed during this visit?

Sean Stein: Our visit aims to convey three core messages.

First, for 53 years, we have been a bridge between the United States and China, and between China and our member companies. We remain committed to building a stronger relationship between the two countries.

Second, we strongly support policies that make it easier for companies to invest in China, because we think it's good for China, we think it's good for America, we think it's good for companies — we think it's good for everybody when we have a good business climate. And we believe that's consistent with China's own goals.

Finally, there are reasons that the U.S. investment has declined in China, but there are things we can do to help reverse that. We wanted to talk about what we can do to generate more investment in China, that we think is going to be good for China and good for everybody.

So we asked for more details to help our members make decisions and do risk assessment. And frankly, that's really important. So we had some good conversations about that. Again, our goal is to find solutions.

"Chinese Government Is Pragmatic and Efficient"

SFC: Did this visit help solve some existing issues?

Sean Stein: Yes, there were definitely some problems that got solved. One of the things I thought was particularly useful is that normally, we only meet with the central government. But on this trip, partly because I’ve spent so much of my time working in Shanghai, Chengdu and Northeastern China, I felt it was really important to meet with local leaders as well.

So we also met with the Party Secretary of Beijing. Some of the companies had very specific issues that were making it difficult to expand in Beijing or to carry out certain operations. And the very next day, officials came back to our team and said, “We want to understand this issue better,” or, “How do we fix this?” So we saw very quick action on the part of the Beijing government. I remember that a couple of the companies said, in particular, they were very pleasantly surprised at how quickly and how nimble the Beijing government is to fix problems.

We had a very good conversation about some other issues with MOFCOM (the Ministry of Commerce), and MOFCOM had some very concrete solutions to some of the issues that our members are facing. CCPIT (China Council for the Promotion of International Trade), the same thing. So I think in almost all of the meetings, we saw progress in one form or another.

SFC: What insights or takeaways have you gained from this visit?

Sean Stein: I think that one takeaway is, right now, the Chinese government is very pragmatic. The Chinese government is very eager to identify challenges that make it hard to invest in China, and to look for ways to make it easier—and to make it a better investment climate not just for American companies, but for companies all over the world.

Another takeaway is that it became really clear that the two governments need more channels of communication. In addition to more government-to-government contact, we need a lot more people-to-people contact.

SFC: Are the delegation members satisfied with the outcomes of this visit to China?

Sean Stein: This is my first board trip. I've only been in this role for six months. One of the board members who has been on many of these trips told me that he thought this was the best board trip in the past eight or ten years. He said it was because the government was very pragmatic, and because there was a real sense of collaboration—of “how can we work together?”

All I can say is that every board member I spoke to was very happy. And they said, “We need to make sure we do this again next year.” So I think they were very happy.

I think the Chinese side that we met with was very happy too, because we bring information: here’s what’s happening with investment, here’s what’s happening in this sector. And that’s why, like I said, we try to bring a tech company, a manufacturing company, a life sciences company, a logistics company, and a professional services company. So when we talk to them, we can say, “Here’s what’s happening in the sector, and here’s what the policies are doing for this sector.” 

Chinese Market Is Important For Innovation and Supply Chain

SFC: The USCBC’s 2025 Member Survey shows that some American companies are adjusting their supply chains. Could you elaborate on this finding?

Sean Stein: Companies have been adjusting their supply chains for a long time. But often when we read about this in the media, a lot of media in America gets it wrong. They will say, “Oh, companies are pulling out of China.” That's not what companies are saying.

Companies are not pulling out of China. Very few companies are leaving China. What's happening is, besides China, they also invested in Vietnam or Malaysia or Thailand or Mexico or India or the Philippines or whatever. 

Companies—American companies, European companies, and Chinese companies—are diversifying their supply chains. But that's not the same thing as saying they're not committed to being in China. That's not the same thing as saying they're leaving China, because they are committed to China, and they're not leaving China.

SFC: Is the Chinese market still an important part of American companies' business?

Sean Stein: The Chinese market is important, but the Chinese market isn't the only reason that companies invest here.

Indeed, many invest for the China market, but many others invest because it's important to be able to do R&D in China—because China has excellent capabilities for doing R&D. So if you're doing R&D, you do R&D in the U.S., and you do R&D in China, and that's how you stay competitive.

Having an efficient supply chain—which often means having more in China rather than less, in order to be efficient and competitive—is also a reason why companies are here.

Another reason companies are here and continue to invest is because so much innovation happens in China. Sometimes it's digital strategies, sometimes it's product development, sometimes it's anything, really. But so much innovation happens here that companies want to be here, so they can see what's happening and take part in that innovation.

We've seen what happens when companies aren't here and aren't paying attention to innovation in China. I remember three years ago at the Shanghai Auto Show, I went with some American and German automotive executives, and they were like, “Wow.” They were surprised. Why? Because they weren't paying attention to the market—they weren't here.

So companies have largely learned that lesson: they need to be here so they understand where the market is going and where innovation is happening.

So all that is to say that the Chinese market is very important, but there's more to investing in China than just the market. R&D, competitiveness, supply chain, innovation are all factors that make China even more important.

Years ago, there were two main reasons to invest in China: you invested for the market, and you invested because of relative low labor cost. Now, you invest in China because there are great workers—and very skilled workers.

What I want to say is: the market is important, but it's not the whole story. Now there's a much more complex story about why companies are here.

SFC: Do you still believe that Chinese and American companies can collaborate in the field of innovation?

Sean Stein: Absolutely—and it's insane to think we can't. If you look at almost any sector, there's a lot of complementarity between the U.S. and China.

Take life sciences and drug discovery, for example. There are segments that Western companies—particularly U.S. companies—are very good at, and there are elements that Chinese companies are really good at.

If you look at AI, China is very strong on the application side and even on parts of the basic research side. The U.S. is also strong on basic research. There should be a lot of complementarity in this sector. The U.S. is often great at developing technologies, and China is brilliant at scale.

So there are many areas where the U.S. and China should be working together—and that would be good for everybody.

If the question is "can there still be cooperation on development, research, and innovation?" Absolutely yes. And companies that don't take advantage of that are not going to stay competitive globally in many industries for very long.

Anticipating Exchange Visits to the Greater Bay Area

SFC: The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is a hub of innovation in China, striving to become a world-class bay area. Do you think American companies will increase their investment in the Greater Bay Area?

Sean Stein: It’s absolutely true that companies will look at what the local policies are like under the Greater Bay Area when making investment decisions. But I don't know enough about that to say exactly how. How to deepen the integration of Guangdong, Hong kong and Macao is very important. 

We've been trying to plan a visit to Guangdong to meet the local governments to talk about this—but we haven’t yet. So when I go, I’ll be glad to meet with local leaders. That would be great.

So in principle, we’re supportive of the Greater Bay Area. We're supportive of policies that are making it easier to invest, easier to do business, to create a fair, level playing field that gives companies here a reason to expand and a reason to grow.

SFC: Which region in China would you recommend American companies to invest in?

Sean Stein: It depends very much on the industry. There are industries that absolutely should come to Shanghai. There are industries, such as chemicals or manufacturing, that may invest in Suzhou. Others may in Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, etc.

I think that every company is different, so the fact is—it depends. For companies, I think the key is knowing your industry and understanding where you should go based on what's happening there.