Relations between Washington and Beijing are at their lowest in many years amid disputes over commerce, know-how, human rights and China’s more and more aggressive strategy towards its territorial claims involving self-governing Taiwan and the South China Sea.
Jason Lee | Reuters
BEIJING — China’s ambassador to the U.S., Xie Feng, has blamed U.S. tariffs and export controls for a drop in commerce between the 2 nations.
That is in keeping with a speech he gave through video on Tuesday at Forbes’ U.S.-China Enterprise Discussion board in New York, revealed on-line by the Chinese language Embassy within the U.S.
China-U.S. commerce fell by 14.5% within the first half of the 12 months from a 12 months in the past, Xie identified.
“This can be a direct consequence of U.S. strikes to levy Part 301 tariffs on Chinese language imports, abuse unilateral sanctions and additional tighten up export controls,” he stated.
“Livelihoods of many households have been affected, and companies from each nations have born the brunt.”
China’s commerce companions
The U.S. is China’s largest buying and selling companion on a single nation foundation.
12 months to this point, U.S.-China commerce fell additional in July with a 15.4% decline from the identical interval in 2022, China customs information confirmed.
To close out China is to shut the door on alternatives, cooperation, stability and growth.
Xie Feng
China’s ambassador to the U.S.
“The most important threat is any decoupling between China and the US, and the most important supply of insecurity comes from any confrontation between the 2,” he stated.
“To close out China is to shut the door on alternatives, cooperation, stability and growth.”
Exports stay a serious contributor to China’s economic system, though their share has fallen in recent times.
The U.S. authorities on Wednesday revised down second-quarter home product to a 2.1% annualized tempo, opposite to expectations there can be no revision, Reuters stated. The report stated decrease enterprise spending on tools contributed to the revision.
Xie on Tuesday referred to as for locating “a path for increasing mutually useful financial cooperation and commerce between China and the US.”
“Going ahead, we have to proceed taking concrete steps, irrespective of how small they could look,” he stated, giving examples — resembling making it simpler for folks to journey between the 2 nations, and renewing an settlement to cooperate on science and know-how.
On a regional foundation, the European Union and Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations are China’s largest buying and selling companions. These commerce flows have additionally dropped this 12 months — albeit at a extra average tempo — amid a decline in world demand.
Xie on Tuesday identified China’s world dominance in commerce and in industries resembling electrical autos. He famous that France, the U.Okay. and Japan had considerably elevated their international funding in China within the first half of the 12 months.
“Extra efforts might be made to guard international funding and guarantee nationwide therapy for foreign-invested enterprises,” he stated.
U.S. Commerce secretary visits China
In his remarks, Xie famous U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s journey to China this week. Following her conferences with Chinese language authorities officers, the U.S. and China agreed to set up common communication channels on commerce, export controls and defending commerce secrets and techniques.
Raimondo instructed reporters she “stated no” to China’s requests to scale back export controls and “retract” the manager order on outbound funding screening.
“We do not negotiate on issues of nationwide safety,” she stated.
As a substitute of containing China, it should solely curtail the fitting of American companies to develop in China.
Xie Feng
China’s ambassador to the U.S.
The U.S. authorities has cited nationwide safety considerations for its strikes to limit Chinese language firms’ purchases of superior semiconductors from U.S. companies.
In 2018, the Trump administration imposed tariffs on Chinese language items, to which Beijing responded with tariffs of its personal.
Xie claimed that common U.S. tariffs on Chinese language merchandise have been 19%, whereas the Chinese language tariffs on U.S. items averaged 7.3%.
“Is that this honest? Does this actually serve U.S. pursuits?”
The ambassador assumed his function in Might after a interval of about six months by which China had no ambassador to the U.S.
In August, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an govt order geared toward limiting U.S. investments into Chinese language semiconductor, quantum computing and synthetic intelligence firms over nationwide safety considerations. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is generally liable for figuring out the small print, which at the moment stay open to public remark.
Xie referred to as the manager order “a violation of the precept of free commerce.”
Learn extra about China from CNBC Professional
“It’s merely complicated that the US, which repeatedly urged China to broaden entry for international funding prior to now, is now imposing restrictions itself,” he stated. “As a substitute of containing China, it should solely curtail the fitting of American companies to develop in China.”
As a part of Raimondo’s journey to China, the U.S. Commerce secretary stated she spoke with greater than 100 companies and more and more heard from them that “China is uninvestible as a result of it is turn out to be too dangerous.”
“My message was there is a want to do enterprise, however we want predictability, due course of and a degree enjoying area,” Raimondo added in an unique interview with CNBC’s Eunice Yoon on Wednesday.