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Wendy Wu

China is preparing to retaliate if US president-elect Donald Trump launches a trade war, a key US business lobby group warned on Wednesday.
“To our knowledge, China is already preparing measures in the event of actions by the new ­administration ... should [they] impose restrictions on trade and investment with respect to China,” Lester Ross, head of the American Chamber of Commerce in China’s policy committee, said.
Ross also said new anti-dumping investigations by China were in the pipeline.
“China has indeed threatened to and is preparing to take steps in retaliation if such actions take place,” he said.


Ross made the comments as the chamber unveiled the results of a business survey, which ­reflected concerns about rising protectionism, limited market assess and unclear regulation in China.
Chamber chairman William Zarit said foreign business had not observed any substantial moves by Beijing towards reforms pledged in 2012. Instead of liberalising or privatising the economy, the reforms seemed to only make state firms more competitive, he said.
China will be the clear winner if Trump declares a trade war
The Ministry of Commerce did not reply to the Post’s request for comment.
On the campaign trail, Trump threatened punitive tariffs of up to 45 per cent on China’s exports to the US and nominated hardline China critics to take up positions in his administration.


Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, President Xi Jinping said there would be no winner in a trade war.
Vice-Premier Wang Yang also discussed economic issues in a phone call to US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew yesterday, Xinhua reported.
Don’t blame globalisation for world’s ills, Xi Jinping tells Davos
Zarit said the business group would send seven or eight members to Washington next month to “share ideas on a win-win path forward” and to “speak to whoever we can” to convey “realistic” messages about China.
“We would recommend the US ... be more aggressive in talks [with China] … we want to make sure that we don’t do things that are counterproductive to both countries,” he said.


The chamber said dimmer prospects for bilateral ties and the lack of progress on easing market access by China had dashed hopes on sealing an investment treaty. The chamber previously expected the deal could be reached by 2018.
The negative list submitted by China for the treaty was “far from acceptable”, Ross said.
Shen Jianguang, a Hong Kong-based economist with Mizuho Securities, said China could choose to cut imports from US aviation, car, mechanical equipment and hi-tech suppliers and turn to business rivals such as ­Airbus. China could also reduce the imports of US agricultural products, Shen said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping travels to Davos with a tough sell on his hands
Other options for Beijing were to carry out strict and frequent anti-dumping or anti-subsidy ­investigations on US products, to dump its holdings of US treasuries or launch investigations into US businesses operating in China , he said.
“But all these countermeasures have side effects for China,” Shen said. “China is the largest overseas market for many US companies, and China still has room for negotiation.”


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US-China relations

China preparing to hit back if Donald Trump starts trade war, says US business group

Trucks line up at a container port in Qingdao in Shandong province. Lester Ross from the American Chamber of Commerce in China says new anti-dumping investigations by China are in the pipeline. Photo: AP

Trump cards: how will next US president play his hand against China?

South China Sea, cybersecurity and trade likely to be among key pressure points

(150923) -- SEATTLE, Sept. 23, 2015 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) chats with a Boeing employee aboard a 787 plane which will soon be delivered to China's Xiamen Airlines during his visit to the Boeing Company's commercial airplane factory in Everett of Washington State, the United States, Sept. 23, 2015. (Xinhua/Li Tao) (wf)

Crew members aboard the VOS Raasay recover U.S. and British Royal Navy ocean gliders taking part in the Unmanned Warrior exercise off the northwest coast of Scotland on October 8, 2016. A similar unmanned underwater vehicle was seized by the Chinese Navy in international waters off the coast of the Philippines on December 15, 2016. Courtesy Santiago Carrizosa/U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERSATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY.

FILE - In this July 14, 2016 file photo, a woman walks past a billboard featuring an image of an island in South China Sea on display with Chinese words that read: "South China Sea, our beautiful motherland, we won't let go an inch" in Weifang in east China's Shandong province. A U.S. think tank says recent satellite images appear to show that China has installed anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapons on its man-made islands in the South China Sea. (Chinatopix via AP, File)

epa05082833 Chinese yuan or renminbi (RMB) notes in Beijing, China, 29 December 2015. China's currency fell to its weakest in more than four and a half years on 29 December 2015. The yuan, also known as the renminbi, dropped 114 basis points to 6.4864 against the US dollar on 29 December, its weakest since June 2011, according to data from the China Foreign Exchange Trading System. EPA/HOW HWEE YOUNG

Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). SCMP Pictures (UNDATED HANDOUT)

epa04094574 A handout picture provided by the White House on 22 February 2014 shows US President Barack Obama (R) meeting with the Dalai Lama in the Map Room of the White House, in Washington, DC, USA, 21 February 2014. Obama met with the the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism at the White House, brushing off warnings from China that it would cause 'serious damage' to bilateral ties. The meeting with Obama was the first since July 2011, which also took place against protests from Beijing. The 78-year-old exiled Buddhist monk is in the USA on a speaking tour. EPA/PETE SOUZA / THE WHITE HOUSE / HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY

FILE - In this May 19, 2014, file photo, press materials are displayed on a table of the Justice Department in Washington, before Attorney General Eric Holder was to speak at a news conference to announce that a U.S. grand jury has charged five Chinese hackers with economic espionage and trade secret theft, the first-of-its-kind criminal charges against Chinese military officials in an international cyber-espionage case. The United States in July 2014 will urge China to resume discussions on cybersecurity that were suspended abruptly after the U.S. charged five Chinese military officers with hacking into U.S. companies to steal trade secrets, a U.S. official said June 26. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

A man walks past an advertisement of Apple's iPad 2 on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012 in Shanghai, China. Proview Electronics said it is now seeking to regain worldwide rights to the iPad name and is suing Apple Inc. for alleged fraud and unfair competition, hoping to have a 2009 sale of the trademark ruled void. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Containers at the port of Lianyungang in east China's Jiangsu province in December. US president-elect Donald Trump has threatened to slap a 45 per cent tariff on imports from China. Photo: Xinhua

SCMP

China will be the clear winner if Trump declares a trade war

US President-elect Donald Trump has labelled China a currency manipulator and perpetrator of unfair trade practices, and threatened retaliation including steep import tariffs. But if the posturing becomes reality, the heat is likely to be on his own administration instead. Photo: AFP

An employee counts 100 Chinese yuan banknotes at a bank in Hefei, Anhui province, January 21, 2013. Yield-chasing investors, whose hunger for income powered a long rally in Asian junk-rated bonds, are finally feeling the first symptoms of indigestion after a year-long binge. To match Analysis ASIA-MARKETS/CREDIT REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA - Tags: BUSINESS)

Boxes of Mengniu's milk products are seen at a supermarket in Beijing June 19, 2013. China Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd signed a second takeover deal in a month on Tuesday, offering to buy Carlyle-backed Yashili International Holdings Ltd in a deal worth about HK$12.5 billion ($1.6 billion) as part of a plan to expand its milk powder business. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon (CHINA - Tags: BUSINESS FOOD)

(161209) -- NANJING, Dec. 9, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Aerial photo taken on Nov. 29, 2016 shows a view of Lianyungang Port in Lianyungang City, east China's Jiangsu Province. Lianyungang Port, whose construction began in early 1930s, is now one of the important outlets from east China to the Pacific Ocean. Since the China-Kazakhstan logistics terminal was put into operation in Lianyungang on May 19, 2014 and the first freight train departed from Lianyungang to Kazakhstan's Almaty on Feb. 25, 2015, the port has been playing a pivotal role in connecting East Asia with Central Asia and Europe, offering an attractive alternative for the flow of trade between the three regions. (Xinhua/Han Yuqing) (wf)

With their threats to China, Trump and Tillerson are making rookie blunders that will only hurt US credibility

Hugh White says their ill-considered words over the South China Sea and ‘one China’ policy, which underline how little they understand China, will most probably reveal themselves to be empty threats

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, center, waits in an elevator in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 16, 2017. President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to cancel the executive orders of his predecessor would have wide-ranging implications in compensation, paid leave, diversity in hiring, and protection for gay and transgender employees in the workplace. Photographer: Anthony Behar/Pool via Bloomberg

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying speaks at a press conference in Beijing on Dec. 26, 2016. After Taiwan said the same day that China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, along with other warships entered the South China Sea, Hua said China's drills are "in line with international law and international practice" and that all parties should respect its aircraft carrier's freedom of navigation. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

In this image taken from video run by China's CCTV via AP Video, J-15 fighter jets taxi on China's aircraft carrier Liaoning as they prepare to conduct a drill in the South China Sea. China confirmed that its aircraft carrier has for the first time conducted drills in the South China Sea with a formation of other warships and fighter jets, a move that could raise concerns among its neighbors. (CCTV via AP Video)