Commentary: Electoral politics should not sacrifice China-U.S. ties

With the official nomination of a U.S. Democratic presidential candidate this week, the race for the White House will enter its final stage, so will be the race for China bashing.

It has been widely acknowledged that the relationship between China and the United States is one of the most important in the world, and for years, the two countries have made strides in promoting global trade and economic recovery and joined hands to fix many of the most pressing problems facing humanity, such as climate change, terrorism and transnational organized crime.

Nevertheless, blaming China for America's domestic conundrums is still a Washington obsession and a convenient tool for U.S. politicians to gain political capital.

In his speech at the Republican national convention last Friday, Donald Trump, the party's presidential candidate, bluntly accused China of "outrageous theft of intellectual property," "illegal dumping" and "devastating currency manipulation."

However, his accusations were contrary to facts. The World Intellectual Property Organization named China the fastest growing patent filer in the world and ranked China's Huawei as the world's top international patent filer in 2015.

With regard to the Chinese currency, China has, since 2005, embarked on a path of vigorous structural reform. The yuan's inclusion in the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights currency basket is persuasive evidence justifying China's input.

At this week's Democratic national convention in Philadelphia, it is also expected that Democrats will not spare their ammunition against China.

While U.S. politicians are aiming at short-term gains by bashing China, they have to know that such an opportunist and populist approach is at the expense of their own country's interests and its relations with China, an important partner, which they have to work with once they are sitting in the Oval Office.

It is true that many of the rhetoric against China during the presidential campains would not be translated into Washington's policies, but those chameleon politicians should not always expect that the wounds would heal automatically. If China-U.S. ties are allowed to be consumed by those short-sighted politicians, American businesses would be among the first to suffer. Endi