Commenting Tuesday in a virtual discussion on why China matters to the US heartland region, hosted by the US Heartland China Association, Allen pointed out that China's economy has enormous scale that is the size of Europe. "If we do not compete in this market, our companies will lose the benefit of the scale which in the business world is tantamount to losing competitiveness. So, in brief, if American companies want to be global business leaders, they also need to be in the Chinese market," he said.