China on Saturday warned the US against launching a trade war, saying that both countries would suffer if US President Donald Trump follows through on his threats.
Trump has repeatedly accused China of using unfair trade policies to steal jobs from the US, threatening to retaliate with massive tariffs unless Beijing changes tack.
“A trade war is not in the interest of the two countries and the two peoples,” China’s Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan told reporters on the sidelines of the country’s annual political gathering in Beijing.
“It is fair to say trade war will only cause pain without gains.”
He said that US exports to China have increased by an average of about 11 percent per year over the last decade, while Chinese exports have only increased by 6.6 percent over the same period, noting that the Asian giant is also a major importer of American goods like soybeans, cars and Boeing airplanes.
“This clearly shows that China and America are very important to each other,” he added.
Foreign firms
Meanwhile, China also tried to downplay concerns it is reducing market access for foreign enterprises, days after a report by an EU group accused Beijing of trying to skew its business playing field toward domestic firms.
The paper, released Tuesday by the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, slammed the government’s “Made in China 2025” plan — launched two years ago to champion local high-tech manufacturing.
While officials have repeatedly said they welcome foreign firms’ investment in China, the country has erected barriers in a wide variety of sectors from automotive to finance while simultaneously subsidizing its own domestic companies.
Even so, the EU chamber’s criticisms were a “misreading” of the government’s intentions, Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology, told reporters during a press conference.
The “original intention in formulating this policy was to prevent some companies from using loopholes in government policies to profit from government subsidies,” he said, adding that “domestic and foreign invested companies will all be treated equally.”
Miao also refuted the report’s claims that China was putting “intense pressure” on foreign firms to hand over advanced technology in exchange for market access.
“The government does not yet have this kind of ability to compel state-owned enterprises, how can you say it will compel foreign firms to hand over technology?” Miao said.
Miao’s comments were echoed in a commentary by the official Xinhua News Service, which took the chamber to task for its concerns, saying that foreign firms have long enjoyed “super-national treatment,” including “privileges unimaginable to native businesses.”
“Now the special treatment is being gradually repealed as the government lets the market ... decide,” it said.
Investment across Taiwan
Miao said that investment across the Taiwan Strait can help achieve China’s aim of achieving unification with the self-ruled island, and called for Taiwan to be more open to Chinese businesses.
He said economic cooperation between both sides of the Taiwan Strait had made huge progress in the last three decades since the two began their detente.
China welcomes Taiwan chip companies to invest in China, he added.
“Of course, we hope that openness is two-sided, not one-sided,” Miao said.

Source: Arab News