A truck moves goods in a shipping container next to large stacks of shipping containers and cranes at the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, California, USA on August 26, 2026. Photo: VCG

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's call for G20 members to reassess their trade terms with China is a push for "bloc-based trade", and risks turning a debate over global imbalances into a political one, a Chinese expert said, arguing that Washington should first examine why it has become less able to supply competitive products to global markets.

Speaking to Reuters on Sunday ahead of a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, Bessent claimed that he would encourage members to "re-examine" their trade terms with China as part of efforts to reduce so-called "global imbalances".

He described the current level of Chinese exports as "unsustainable," even as he said the US' direct trade position with China was "rapidly improving." 

The remarks came as the US, this year's G20 president, has made "excessive global imbalances" a priority of the 2026 G20 Finance Track. G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will meet in Asheville, North Carolina, from Monday to Tuesday.

Bessent's remarks were more an exercise in "political mobilization" ahead of talks with finance chiefs from major US allies and other leading economies than a policy prescription grounded in market logic and multilateral trade rules, Li Yong, an executive council member of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies, told the Global Times on Monday.

"By bringing the issue to the G20, Washington is seeking to turn an economic question into a political one and rally other economies into what Li called "bloc-based economies" and "bloc-based trade" targeting China," Li said. "Rather than blaming China, the US should ask why its own economy can no longer provide such supply competitively."

Trade is shaped by comparative advantage, global demand and supply capacity, the expert noted, adding "Trade does not require perfectly balanced imports and exports, and a surplus alone does not make one country responsible for global imbalances."

The IMF's latest assessment also undercuts attempts to pin global imbalances on one side alone, saying in its July 2026 External Sector Report that coordinated domestic policy action would deliver the best global outcome, while rebalancing by one country alone could pose financial-market risks and weigh on growth.

For China, the IMF put the country's 2025 current-account surplus at about 3.3 percent of GDP. China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said in July that the ratio stood at around 3.7 percent, still within the internationally recognized reasonable range.

Li said China's trade with G20 members and other economies is ultimately shaped by global demand, supply capacity and market competition. 

"If there is demand, someone has to supply it," Li said. "China's export strength reflects manufacturers' ability to respond quickly to overseas demand with competitive prices, quality and faster product upgrades, rather than an effort to shift domestic economic problems abroad," he added.

By contrast, the US has failed to adequately confront its own structural problems, including weakened manufacturing capacity and excessive financialization, while increasingly turning to protectionist measures that risk hurting its allies and the global trading system, Li said.

The US itself has long run a sizable surplus in services trade. According to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, its services surplus rose 8.9 percent in 2025 to $339.5 billion.

Meanwhile, recent trade data also undercut the portrayal of China as simply relying on exports to offset domestic weakness. In the first seven months of 2026, China's goods imports surged 22.0 percent year-on-year, outpacing a 14.0 percent rise in exports, official data showed.

Bessent also said on Sunday high tariffs and outright bans on some Chinese products had pushed more exports toward other markets, particularly Europe and Latin America. He went on to urge other countries to "give China an incentive" to rely less on exports and to "examine their terms of trade" with China, according to Reuters.

Li warned that using political coordination to push more economies toward restrictions on trade - an approach that runs against market principles and WTO rules - could fuel "bloc-based trade" and further fragment the global trading system, rather than address the structural roots of global imbalances.

In a July position paper on the so-called excess capacity issue, MOFCOM said China has never sought a trade surplus for its own sake, stressing that the surplus may be recorded in China, but the benefits are shared by all sides. It also noted that while China runs a relatively large goods trade surplus, it records deficits in services trade and investment income.

Responding to a question about China's trade surplus in March, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said international trade is, in essence, a two-way market choice that benefits both sides. "China is ready to be not only a 'world factory' but also a 'world market'," Lin said, noting that China is actively implementing the strategy of expanding domestic demand, increasing imports of quality foreign products and unlocking consumption potential at a faster pace.