Iran Press/Asia: The warning came after the Chinese government released a report that accused President Donald Trump of bullying other countries. It dampened hopes for progress toward a settlement of their war over Beijing’s technology policy, AP reported.
Trump went ahead Monday with a tax hike on $200 billion of Chinese imports. Beijing retaliated by imposing penalties on $60 billion of U.S. products.
The conflict stems from U.S. complaints Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology. American officials say Chinese plans for state-led development of global competitors in robotics and other technologies violate its market-opening obligations and might erode U.S. industrial leadership.
Beijing is open to negotiations but whether they proceed is up to Washington, said a deputy commerce minister, Wang Shouwen. Wang led the Chinese delegation to the last round of talks in Washington in August, which ended without progress.
“Now that the United States has adopted such large-scale restrictive measures and holds a knife to another’s neck, how can negotiations proceed?” said Wang at a news conference. “It would not be negotiations of equality.”
With no settlement in sight, forecasters say the conflict between the two biggest economies could trim global growth by 0.5 percentage points through 2020.
Business groups say American companies report Chinese regulators also are stepping up pressure on them by slowing down customs clearance and increasing environmental and other inspections.
In its report Tuesday, the Chinese government tried to reinforce its position that it is defending free trade, despite complaints by the United States, Europe and other trading partners about market barriers and industrial policy.
It said Beijing has tried to protect the multilateral global trading system and accused Trump of abandoning “mutual respect” required for international relations.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang summoned U.S. ambassador to China Terry Branstad on Friday and lodged solemn representations and protests against the U.S. side's sanctions on Chinese military agency and official pursuant to its domestic law according to Xinhua.
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The U.S. State Department announced Thursday that it would impose sanctions on the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission of China and the department's director, alleging that China had violated the "Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act."
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Zheng pointed out that the United States' action on the ground of military cooperation between China and Russia severely violated basic norms governing the international relations, and that such mean behavior is a blatant hegemonic act.
"The China-Russia military cooperation is normal cooperation between two sovereign states, and the U.S. side has no right to interfere," Zheng said.
He added that the U.S. side's act has severely harmed the state-to-state and mil-to-mil relations and affected the cooperation in international and regional affairs between China and the United States.
"The Chinese side will take every necessary measure to firmly safeguard its national interests. We strongly urge the U.S. side to correct its mistake immediately and withdraw the so-called sanctions," he said. "Otherwise, the U.S. side will have to bear all the consequences."
In addition to new tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods set to go into effect Sept. 24, the U.S. State Department sanctions against China’s defence agency and its director on Thursday contributed to the ultimate decision to cancel the talks.
Video from AFP
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