Sino-US economic interdependence to stay; 'decoupling' seen 'impossible'

The deep-rooted economic interdependence between China and the United States will continue to stand, offering a significant guarantee of peace and prosperity for both countries, a reputed US scholar said on Monday.

"The interdependence between China and the US is so substantial that it cannot be rolled back. The concept of decoupling is impossible," said John Quelch, executive vice-chancellor of Duke Kunshan University, a joint venture of Duke University in the US, Wuhan University in Hubei province and Kunshan, a city in Jiangsu province.

Quelch, who was professor of business administration at Harvard Business School for over three decades, said that while some economic activities between China and the US can be redirected to third countries, the close economic relationship between the world's two biggest economies is too important to both countries to be scaled back.