Businesses and regular people are disproportionately affected by trade disputes, a Chinese envoy said at a national meeting on Wednesday.

"Every time the China-US trade relationship goes wrong, it is the business community and ordinary people who bear the brunt," said Zhang Ping, Chinese consul general in Los Angeles, speaking at the International Cooperation Day Forum.

"We should let those who advocate a trade war know that a trade war is not something that can be won easily."

The forum, co-sponsored by the China General Chamber of Commerce-USA and the US National Governors Association, is a part of the annual summer gathering of national governors in Santa Fe from Thursday through Saturday.

The event brings together more than 20 US governors as well as delegations from countries including China, Canada, Kenya and Japan to discuss pressing issues of the day.

Themes of this year's conference include the opioid drug crisis, technology transformation, and economic opportunities between Chinese provinces and US states.

Forty-nine US states have increased their exports to China in the past 10 years, 17 of which saw triple-digit growth, Zhang said.

Exports to China have created 1 million jobs in the US, Zhang added, and Chinese companies have invested in 46 US states, appearing in 98 percent of the US congressional districts.

"What we have achieved does not come easily," Zhang said. "These concrete results are real benefits to our people that need to be cherished."

According to a 2018 report by the National Committee on US-China Relations and Rhodium Group, annual Chinese direct investment in the US grew from far less than $1 billion before 2008 to more than $46 billion in 2016.

But after a record year in 2016, the value of direct investment transactions dropped 35 percent in 2017, the report claimed, due to policy changes in both countries, namely China's restrictions on outbound investment and greater US regulatory pushback.

Contact the writer at teresaliu@chinadailyusa.com