Sino-US innovation cooperation promising for world

US President Donald Trump Wednesday congratulated Chinese President Xi Jinping on being re-elected general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. This set a harmonious tone for Trump's visit to China in November.

China and the US have bilateral cooperation in many fields, and in the future, cooperation on innovation will be of greater significance. The traditional innovation power, the US, and the new innovation engine, China, will steer the overall development of global innovation and entrepreneurship.

China and the US vary in their innovation pathways. However, a huge complementary advantage derives from this difference. China is in a critical period of industrial transformation and upgrading, and the US still possesses the strongest scientific and technological base with the largest number of the world's top 100 universities.

Technology-driven companies account for most US start-ups, and China's huge potential market is capable of fulfilling their globalization strategies quickly. Sino-US innovation cooperation has made great progress, and more fields await exploration.

First, governmental support and cooperation mechanisms can be further consolidated. China's economic development has entered the "new normal" stage where it is evolving, with a more detailed division of labor and clearer structure. The innovation-driven development strategy implemented by the Chinese government abandoned the simple technical replication previously used, but attempted to promote the development of the entire science and technology sector.

China and the US should further expand mutually beneficial cooperation, strengthen coordination in science and technology policies, promote constructive interaction in the high-technology field, and maintain and promote the momentum of social and cultural exchanges to build a normalized cooperation platform for bilateral talent flows.

Second, universities and think tanks should cooperate more to enhance specialization. Universities are both pioneers of cultural exchanges between China and the US and catalysts for the development of bilateral relations. These organizations are the "repository" of strategic ideas, so the Sino-US innovation cooperation can not be separated from their interaction.

Learning and sharing among human civilizations relies more and more on knowledge, technological innovation and the overall improvement of human quality, which requires universities and think tanks to assume the role of leading development and creating the future. Taking Chinese and US universities and think tanks as an example, we will carry out joint research and discussion of the urgent problems faced by both countries and the world, and provide feasible policy proposals for Sino-US relations.

Third, the two countries should consider the elements of innovative resources together and encourage the market to fully play its role. The resources for innovative development are creativity, ideas and knowledge. These elements are implicit and cannot be created by governments. Only the market can stimulate the innovation of knowledge resources. China is firmly sticking to the opening-up policy and has created a more comprehensive, in-depth and diversified opening-up pattern. China and the US should speed up the negotiation process and sign a comprehensive and high-standard bilateral investment treaty. This is would be the most decisive step for further deepening bilateral economic and commercial relations and promoting innovative cooperation.

Fourth, the two nations should explore opportunities along the route of the Belt and Road (B&R) initiative to promote Sino-US cooperation in third-party markets. A new round of technological and industrial revolution is taking place. With the adjustment and transfer of industrial structures, the huge development potential of third-party markets is being unleashed. The B&R initiative provides a good platform for Sino-US innovation and cooperation. China and the US are both creative countries and they should have more innovative ideas about finding common interests.

We need to reform and innovate more than ever and share the fruits of reform and innovation. With the establishment and implementation of social and cultural exchange mechanisms between China and the US, the future of bilateral innovative cooperation is worthy of anticipation.

(The author is director of the International Studies Department at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.)