China hits back at Donald Trump’s ‘zero-sum mentality’ on trade, threatens retaliation
US politicians, with a ‘deep-rooted mistrust’, have failed to catch up with China’s understanding of cooperation, Xinhua commentary says
Beijing on Wednesday criticised Washington’s “zero-sum mentality” with regards to bilateral trade and threatened to retaliate against the tougher stance taken by US President Donald Trump in recent weeks.
“China and the United States are about to ride a bumpy journey in trade in 2018 if the US government goes it own way, and retaliatory measures by China could be on the table,” Xinhua said in an English-language commentary.
The article did not say what measures the government might take.
It said, however, that Trump’s decisions to launch an investigation into alleged Chinese intellectual property theft, reject China’s market economy status at the World Trade Organisation, and label China as a strategic “competitor” had eroded goodwill between the world’s two largest economies.
The “bonhomie” seen as US$250 billion worth of trade deals were struck during Trump’s visit to China in November was fading away because Washington was “stuck in a zero-sum mentality”, the report said.