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Ray Dalio Says Trade War Isn’t Biggest Issue for China and U.S.

Ray Dalio lists seven of the “most important things” to know about U.S.-China trade war.

Ray Dalio Says Trade War Isn’t Biggest Issue for China and U.S.
Ray Dalio, billionaire and founder of Bridgewater Associates LP, gestures as he speaks during a Bloomberg panel session. (Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- With the trade war between China and the U.S. grabbing global headlines, Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of investment management firm Bridgewater Associates LP, took to a lengthy LinkedIn post to argue it’s not the biggest issue in the relationship between the two countries.

“While considerable attention is now being paid to the trade war, what is more important is that China and the U.S. are in a competition of cultural approaches, with the U.S. approach being more opposite than similar to the Chinese approach,” Dalio said.

Dalio wouldn’t say which system he thought was better in the essay that surpassed 2,500 words, but he did list seven of the “most important things” to know:

  • “China has a culture and system that has worked well for it for a long time so it shouldn’t be expected to change much.”
  • “The U.S. has the same.”
  • “These systems (and those of other countries) will be both competing and cooperating, and how well they do that will be an important influence on global conditions.”
  • “How well each system works in practice will have a far greater influence on where each country stands in the future than the terms of the deals that they strike with each other, so each would do well to examine its own weaknesses and come up with reforms to rectify them.”
  • “There is a lot to respect about the Chinese culture and approach that led to its remarkable accomplishments.”
  • “We would do well to learn from each other, cooperate and compete to bring each other up rather than to tear each other down.”
  • “China is a place we need to continue to evolve with and invest in.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Nathan Crooks in Miami at ncrooks@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Clementine Fletcher at cfletcher5@bloomberg.net, Jim Silver

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