China has stepped up accusations that the United States is breaking trade rules and bullying other countries, signalling potentially tense negotiations when the US Secretary of State visits next month. The criticism was levelled by China’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday, when the Geneva-based organisation reviewed disputes including several cases launched against the US. The rebuke by Li Chenggang shows the division between the world’s two largest economies is still large, despite hopes of a thaw after it was announced that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken would visit China in February, while a team of US Treasury officials led by Janet Yellen could also make a trip to Beijing. At the WTO meeting, Li rebuked the US for its unilateralism, breaking international trade rules and disrupting global supply chains, according to the state-owned Xinhua News Agency. Who will take on China’s biggest economic challenges? On Monday, Xinhua blasted the Biden administration for justifying protectionism with national security laws, adding its WTO appeals would meet a dead end and only trigger “public anger”. The US is the biggest violator of international trade rules, accounting for about two thirds of WTO disputes, Xinhua said, and it was responsible for paralysing the organisation’s dispute settlement mechanism in 2019. “Although there is little chance for bilateral issues to be addressed in the multilateral mechanism, China will not give up presenting its perspectives in such occasions and it will try to obtain an initiative in winning international support,” said Lu Xiang, an expert on US-China relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a Beijing-based governmental think tank. China’s Ministry of Commerce has lodged WTO complaints against a US request that Hong Kong products be labelled as “Made in China”, and Washington’s anti-dumping measures on Chinese steel and aluminium products. The WTO’s Appellate Body has not had the minimum number of judges required to hear appeals to trade disputes since December 2019, when the US blocked the appointment of new judges. We are cautious, rather than optimistic, about [results of] the coming Blinken visit Lu Xiang Xinhua claimed that two traditional US allies – the European Union (EU) and Canada – supported China’s position, though no details of their comments at Friday’s meeting were revealed. Instead, the WTO agenda listed the EU’s request for the establishment of a panel on Chinese enforcement of intellectual property rights. National security is at the core of the deadlock between Beijing and Washington, which has used it to justify export controls on semiconductor chips and other hi-tech products. “We are cautious, rather than optimistic, about [results of] the coming Blinken visit,” Lu said. “Strategically, nothing can be negotiated if the US is devoted to containing China’s development.” Such doubts have been reinforced by reports that the US, after putting hundreds of Chinese companies on its trade blacklist, is mulling new measures together with the Netherlands and Japan to further limit chip supplies to China. However, a bigger role for Yellen in bilateral negotiations has brought hope of constructive discussions on the economy, finance and trade issues, where both countries share common interests, Lu said. “The window for improved ties can only be open when bilateral economic and finance teams begin to talk,” he said. Chen Fengying, a senior fellow with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said Yellen’s emergence onto centre stage after the Bali G20 summit was a chance to remedy bilateral relations. “She has been advocating cooperation on global economic and trade issues, and seeking dialogue with China,” Chen said. Details of Yellen’s potential trip remain unclear, but a US statement released after her meeting with Vice-Premier Liu He earlier this month in Switzerland said she “looks forward to travelling to China and to welcoming her counterparts to the United States in the near future”.