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Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon warned that tensions between Washington and Beijing could take years to resolve and that the Wall Street bank has moved away from a “growth at all costs” strategy towards the world’s second-largest economy.
Goldman, which has had an office in Hong Kong for 40 years and opened its first office in China in 1994, has cultivated deep corporate ties there and is one of the most closely followed US companies in the country.
Speaking with the Financial Times at the Global Banking Summit, Solomon said he was encouraged by recent dialogue between the US and Chinese governments but cautioned that the differences between the two sides were deep-rooted.
“I think this is something that’s going to take years to resolve because there are real differences,” Solomon added. “I think the best path to resolution is one for the US and China itself to talk actively.”
Solomon said five years ago Goldman was executing a strategy that was more “growth at all costs in China”.
“Today it’s a more conservative approach [in China] and we’ve probably pared back some of our financial resources there, simply because there’s more uncertainty,” he added.
This month, US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to resume military communications while Xi courted US business leaders.
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