during the week. this is how she put it. chinese people don t mistrust the united states. but they think the u.s. mistrusts them and doesn t understand them. very interesting way of looking at it. one thing we have to continue to understand is these are two nations that need each other to some degree. richard quest is the host of cnn business. in a joint press conference with china s president saying you need us, too. listen. china s extraordinary economic growth has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. this is a tribute to the chinese people. but it s also thanks to decades of stability in asia. made possible by america s forward presence in the region. by strong trade with america. and by an open international economic system championed by the united states of america. stan and richard, i want to hear from you on this one,
but for the two to actually have such an important state visit, it s a reflection, whichever way we look at it, turning point, breakthrough, whatever you want. that there s a g-2 and that that bilateral economic relationship is going to define them. for one simple reason, ali. because the u.s. may hold the leadership, if you like. particularly in relation to the trans-atlantic and the european sphere. but you ve got china with asean, with apec and other side of the globe. together they need each other. stan, since we don t often have a chance to talk to you. i ve spent a lot of the week talking about how americans can profit or benefit from growth in china. one of the things we talked about was kids learning mandarin in schools in the u.s.th and i asked one teacher, how do you convince the students of the importance of learning mandarin or understanding china. i tell everybody if the first opportunity they get, go to china. go to beijing.
in beijing. stan, tell me, how the chinese perceive america? do they see themselves as in remarkable economic ascent and the u.s. as in decline? you know, ali, there is a real sense here in china, that the u.s. is in decline. although it is still obviously very important and that china is continuing this inexorable rise. the economy grew last year at 9%, it s likely to continue this year. there s a real sense of the self-confidence, you can feel it in china. you saw it with hu jintao and his visit to the united states. they re recognizing this as a state visit. so there is that sense that china can eyeball the united states now. and can t be pushed around. they still do look to the united states, though, as obviously a big market to sell into. it is the biggest market they could target for their goods and they re still attracted to the u.s. culture as well. i spoke to a chinese rock singer
richard. he told china, give us the due credit for where you are today. and he also kept on saying to china, we want to sell you stuff. we want to sell you cars, we want to sell you airplanes. tough words. what leverage do does the u.s. have? it reminds you of your old grandparents saying, so what have you done for me lately. look what i ve done for you in the past. the truth is, this of course, both parties know they need the other. but from the u.s. s point of view, they have to rethink issues like kpetdiveness and the sort of products that are manufactured and at what price they re sold. forget the idea of the yuan being undervalued, that will tame over time. the core point, we re seeing it only in the last few days as president obama has changed the name of his advisory council to put competitiveness into its title, talking about jobs.
what s really important when you re looking at a cyclical move in the economy is the direction. as bad as the numbers are, number one, they re better than they were. number two, perceptions. typically these kind of coincident, hey, how are you feeling polls, they tend to lag the reality. because it takes a little while to catch up to things that are shifting. and here, we have an economy, look, there is no double-dip, we ve discussed that before. in fact, there s a revival in growth. i think steven alluded to that in his opening comments, that s coming in 2011. that s here. it s imminent, it s right in front of us. so and it will include continued jobs growth. so minimally, i think what you saw in 2010, you ll see in 2011. you may see something a bit better in terms of job growth in 2011 and who takes credit for that? first off, i think policy wonks in washington like to say that they control the business cycle. but actually it s the other way