TMTPOST -- Beijing on Monday slammed U.S. President Donald Trump’s accusation and suggested Washington’s moves, which violated a trade truce reached in Mid-May, increase risks of re-escalation of tensions between the world’s two superpowers.
Credit：Xinhua News Agency
A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) denies U.S. “groundlessly” accusing China of violating the consensus reached during the China-U.S. economic and trade talks in Geneva, calling the accusation “grossly distorts the facts”, the state news agency Xinhua cited a statement released on Monday. ”China firmly rejects these unjustified accusations,” said the spokesperson.
The U.S. has seriously undermined the consensus reached with multiple discriminatory restrictive measures against China, included issuing guidance on artificial intelligence (AI) chip export controls, halting sales of chip design software to China, and announcing the revocation of visas for Chinese students, said the spokesperson.
The aforementioned actions severely violated the consensus reached during a phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump on January 17, and gravely harmed China's legitimate rights and interests, according to the spokesperson.
Unlike the United States, China has acted in a responsible manner, taking the consensus reached in the Geneva talks seriously, implementing it rigorously, and upholding it actively, said the spokesperson, noting China has canceled or suspended relevant tariff and non-tariff measures adopted against the U.S. "reciprocal tariffs."
The spokesperson stressed the consensus reached in the Geneva talks are “hard-won”, and urged the U.S. to work with China in the same direction, immediately correct its wrong practices, jointly uphold the consensus of the talks, and promote the healthy, stable and sustainable development of China-U.S. economic and trade relations.
"China is firm in safeguarding its rights and interests, and sincere in implementing the consensus," the spokesperson said. The person warned if the U.S. side insists on going the wrong way and continues to harm China's interests, China will resolutely take forceful measures to defend its legitimate rights and interests.
Trump last Friday accused Beijing of “totally violating” the preliminary trade deal that U.S. and China reached two weeks ago in Geneva. In a post on his social media Truth Social, Trump indicated his good intention didn’t get rewarded for he made the deal with the purpose to save Chinese from devastating economic danger due to the tit-for-tat tariffs.
“The very high Tariffs I set made it virtually impossible for China to TRADE into the United States marketplace which is, by far, number one in the World,” Trump wrote on May . “We went, in effect, COLD TURKEY with China, and it was devastating for them. Many factories closed and there was, to put it mildly, ‘civil unrest.’ I saw what was happening and didn’t like it, for them, not for us. I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didn’t want to see that happen.”
Trump then attacked China in the post: “Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!” the president wrote.
Trump in the post didn’t specify details of his alleged violation. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer later Friday in a CNBC interview raised same concerns, citing China’s purported non-compliance with the preliminary trade deal.
Greer complained China had not accelerate exports of critical minerals required for cutting-edge electronics. The “United States did exactly what it was supposed to do, and the Chinese are slow rolling their compliance,” said Greer. And such slow response, for Greer, is “completely unacceptable and has to be addressed”.
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