China on Monday blamed US president Donald Trump of bullying trade practices and economic intimidation, while also calling for the world’s two largest economies to cooperate and manage their differences.
Trump’s ‘America First’ policies and tariffs have caused serious damage to China-US relations and posed a threat to the multilateral trading system and free trade, the Chinese government said in a white paper aimed at clarifying its stance on the escalating trade war between the two countries.
“[The US] has brazenly preached unilateralism, protectionism and economic hegemony, making false accusations against many countries and regions, particularly China, intimidating other countries through economic measures such as imposing tariffs, and attempting to impose its own interests on China through extreme pressure,” the white paper revealed according to state news agency Xinhua.
The document also said China was the world’s biggest developing country and the US the biggest developed nation, therefore it was “only natural” for some friction to exist between two countries that are at different stages of development and have different economic systems.
“The key, however, lies in how to enhance mutual trust, promote cooperation, and manage differences,” according to the document, which also claimed that Beijing had dealt with the trade tensions by “seeking common ground while shelving divergence”.
The white paper was released on the same day that the US implemented new tariffs on US$200bn worth of Chinese imports. These follow mutual tariffs imposed by both sides on US$50bn worth of imports from each side.
The latest tariffs were announced by Trump last week as a result of the US Trade Representative’s Section 301 investigation, which blamed China for unfair trade practices that force American companies to transfer technology and intellectual property to Chinese firms.
Although Trump threatened to pursue tariffs on another US$267bn of Chinese goods if China retaliated, Beijing nevertheless imposed counter tariffs on US$60bn worth of US imports, which also take effect today.
Over the weekend, China reportedly declined an invitation by the US to explore the possibility of further talks between Vice-Premier Liu He and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin at the end of this month or in early October.
Meanwhile, European Union trade representative Cecilia Malmström will meet US trade representative Robert Lighthizer and Japanese trade minister Hiroshige Seko in Washington in a bid to force China to end its “non-market-oriented policies”, which they say lead to overcapacity and unfair competition.