Stephen Schwarzman, one of the most powerful dealmakers on Wall Street, says one thing that could help to improve Sino-US relations, in particular among the general public, is to make it easier for more people to travel to each country.
President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama made the right moves this month on both climate change and easing visa restrictions for both sides, Schwarzman said at the New York headquarters of Blackstone Group, the buyout fund he co-founded in the 1980s.
The visa deal will have a more immediate and direct impact on citizens of both countries.
During the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Beijing last week, Obama announced the validity of business and tourist visas for Chinese citizens would be extended to up to 10 years, and student and exchange visas to up to five years. Beijing made the same visa arrangements for Americans. The latest US government data shows foreign student numbers in the United States at a record high, with almost a third – more than 274,000 – from China in the 2013-14 academic year.
“As you know, I often travel around the world, I always feel smarter when I come back [to the US] as I always find I can learn and understand global culture and differences,” Schwarzman said.
He is a frequent visitor to China, where he is launching a scholarship worth about US$350 million, the largest private scholarship grant in the history of Chinese education. The scholarship mainly sponsors American students to study and live at Tsinghua University in Beijing for a one-year master’s degree programme.
“It’s like part of your grow-up experience,” he said. Travel by young Americans and Chinese to each other's country will likely lead to more trust than existed in previous generations, he said.
One of the key obstacles for US-China relations is the lack of mutual trust on both sides, something recognised by current US leaders and former US presidents including Jimmy Carter, who shared his concerns at a recent conference.
This year marks the 35th anniversary of the normalisation of diplomatic relations between the US and China but mutual trust on both sides remains very low. According to a survey by the Pew Research Centre earlier this year, just about a third of the American public had a favourable view of China and around 40 per cent of Chinese had a favourable view of the US.
“I’m not surprised,” Schwarzman said. “China on the world stage in terms of interaction with the rest of the world has been relatively very new due to the long isolation period until Deng Xiaoping’s times. It will take some time to normalise the relationship and I think it will take at least a generation.”
Schwarzman, who has won support from both Xi and Obama for the launch his scholarship in Beijing, modelled on the prestigious Rhodes scholarship created in 1902 by British statesman Cecil Rhodes, also said time-zone differences and a lack of foreign language skills, particularly on the US side, contributed to the lack of mutual trust.
“China is exactly on the opposite of the US in terms of time-zone difference as there are 12 hours in difference between Beijing and New York,” he said, adding that made communication difficult for both sides, with the difficulties exacerbated by language problems.
“The language skill in the US for the most part has been awful,” he said. “Many Americans don’t learn any oreign language.”
He said that was why he wanted to “take people from both sides to get familiar with different systems on both sides”.
Schwarzman said he supported Xi and Obama’s joint efforts to reach the new deal on climate change during the Apec summit as air pollution and food safety on the mainland were personal concerns and a focus for new Schwarzman scholarship programme.
He said he was very “attentive” to air pollution, water and food safety issues in China as he wanted to make sure the new Schwarzman College at Tsinghua, which will be home to 100 to 200 Schwarzman scholars a year, would have the safest living conditions.
