China ‘doesn’t want a trade war’ with US, as sides agree to more talks in Beijing soon
Two sides remain committed to cooperation rather than conflict to resolve issues, state media reports
China said on Sunday that it did not want a trade war with the US but would not sit idly by and allow its interests to be hurt, after the two sides agreed to hold further talks on the issue in Beijing soon.
“The right way to handle conflicts is to open markets to both sides, make the pie of cooperation bigger and find solutions acceptable to both sides,” Zhang Yesui, spokesman for the first session of the 13th National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp parliament, said ahead of the annual “Two Sessions” in the Chinese capital.
After President Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser Liu He wrapped up his five-day visit to Washington, Chinese state media reported on Saturday that the two countries had made some progress on the issue.
The trip was “helpful to mutual understanding and promoting cooperation”, Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily said, without giving a time frame for the next round of talks or saying who would be involved.
Liu, who is director of the General Office of the Central Leading Group for the Financial and Economic Affairs, held “candid and constructive” talks with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, White House National Economic Council director Gary Cohn and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, the report said.
Liu was quoted as saying that it was in the interests of both sides to maintain a stable relationship on trade, which would also benefit the global economy.