China says will ‘never surrender’ on trade
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/05/china-says-will-never-surrender-on-trade.html
US President Donald Trump on Monday warned Beijing not to retaliate
in an escalating trade dispute after China said it “will never surrender
to external pressure.”
The trade war between the world’s top two economies heightened on
Friday after Trump hiked tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods,
saying China reneged on earlier commitments made during months of
negotiations.
Beijing vowed to respond to the latest US tariffs. “As for the
details, please continue to pay attention. Copying a US expression —
wait and see,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a daily news
briefing on Monday.
Trump warned China not to intensify the trade dispute and urged their
leaders to continue working to reach a deal. “China should not
retaliate-will only get worse,” he said on Twitter.
I say openly to President Xi & all of my many friends in China
that China will be hurt very badly if you don’t make a deal because
companies will be forced to leave China for other countries,” Trump
wrote.
Global equities fell on Monday as hopes of an imminent trade deal were crushed.
The Republican US president last week also ordered US Trade
Representative Robert Lighthizer to begin imposing tariffs on all
remaining imports from China, a move that would affect an additional
$300 billion worth of goods.
Asked about the threat, Geng said: “We have said many times that
adding tariffs won’t resolve any problem … We have the confidence and
the ability to protect our lawful and legitimate rights.”
Chinese state media kept up a steady drum beat of strongly worded
commentary on Monday, reiterating that China’s door to talks was always
open, but vowing to defend the country’s interests and dignity.
In a commentary, state television said the effect on the Chinese economy from the US tariffs was “totally controllable.”
“It’s no big deal. China is bound to turn crisis to opportunity and
use this to test its abilities, to make the country even stronger.”
Before high-level talks last week in Washington, China tried to
delete commitments from a draft agreement that Chinese laws would be
changed to enact new policies on issues from intellectual property
protection to forced technology transfers. That dealt a major setback to
negotiations.
Trump has since defended the tariff hike and said he was in “absolutely no rush” to finalize a deal.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Sunday there was a
“strong possibility” Trump will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at a
G20 summit in Japan in late June.