SOURCE / ECONOMY
Chinese FM urges US to stop decoupling push, as global opposition against trade war grows
Published: Nov 22, 2022 06:44 PM Updated: Nov 22, 2022 06:40 PM
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian Photo: fmprc.gov.cn

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian Photo: fmprc.gov.cn



The US push for decoupling and industrial chain disruption is in complete violation of the principles of market economy and international trade rules, and hurts not just others but itself, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, urging the US to drop zero-sum mentality and stop politicizing economic and trade.

Influential figures across the international community have expressed their opinion on China-US relations on more than one occasion, which shows once again that cooperation benefits both countries and confrontation hurts both. This is an iron rule governing the development of China-US relations, said Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a regular press conference.

"The essence of China-US economic and trade relations is mutual benefit. To engage in trade wars and technological wars, to erect walls, and to push for decoupling and industrial chain disruptions is a complete violation of the principles of market economy and international trade rules. It hurts not just others but itself," Zhao said.

The US should listen carefully to the voices of reason, abandon zero-sum thinking, stop generalizing the concept of national security, and stop politicizing, instrumentalizing and weaponizing economic, technological, and trade issues, he noted.

"China is ready to work with the US to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state in Bali [Indonesia] and bring China-US relations back to the track of stable and sound development," the spokesperson said.

Zhao was asked about remarks made by Lawrence Summers, a former US Secretary of Treasury and other scholars on the economic war initiated by the US against China.

Summers called on US policymakers to focus on building the country's own economic strengths in its contest with China, rather than on attacking China, Bloomberg reported on Saturday.

Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg, former chief economist at the World Bank and a professor of economics at Yale University, said that the US' latest efforts to block China's technological and economic development are likely to do more harm than good, according to an article published on Project Syndicate on Thursday.

In the article titled "America should rethink its economic war on China," Goldberg said that the US' moves against China are in fact less about national security and more about economic domination.

If it continues, the impressive progress that China has made over the last three decades could indeed make it the world's most important economy. But it is wrong to presume that global welfare is a zero-sum game, and that China's ascent implies the US' decline, Goldberg wrote.

IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva has also described US tariffs placed on Chinese imports under then-US President Donald Trump as counterproductive during an interview with the Washington Post published on Saturday.

Georgieva cited Trump's tariffs on more than $300 billion in US imports from China, which the Biden administration has kept in place.

Those measures did nothing to reduce the US' trade deficit with China, which Trump promised to eliminate, and left US consumers paying higher prices for Chinese products, she said.

Earlier, at the opening ceremony of the 5th China International Import Expo on November 4, Georgieva also stressed the importance of safeguarding and promoting trade openness at home and by cooperating to build a stronger global trading system centered on the WTO.

"To understand the benefits of more open and stable trade policies, we need look no further than China," said Georgieva.

Global Times