China does not deserve to be treated as a ‘criminal’ in enforcement of trade war deal, researcher says
- Trump administration demands ‘detailed and enforceable commitments’ from China as part of a trade deal after nearly a year of economic disruption
- China rejects US demands as bullying and a threat to its sovereignty, leaving hopes of a breakthrough between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump low
Any terms that allow the United States to unilaterally check China’s implementation of a trade deal and allow the Trump administration to impose tariffs on Chinese products if it deems the provisions of the agreement are not being met are seen in Beijing as one-sided and showing a lack of respect, according to Chinese researchers.
The escalating conflict over which side is responsible for the collapse of the talks aimed at ending the protracted trade war has highlighted the issue of enforcement and brought each side’s fundamentally different positions into the spotlight after China then the US released statements over the last few days.
“If there’s a supervision team to oversee the implementation, just like what happened to [telecom equipment producer] ZTE, it is definitely directed at [China’s] sovereignty and can’t be accepted,” said Wang Yiwei, a professor of international relations at the Renmin University of China in Beijing. “China is not a criminal, nor making any mistakes. Why does the US want to supervise us?”
In response to China’s white paper, released on Sunday, that said constantly increasing demands by the US caused trade talks to collapse, the office of the US Trade Representative and the US Treasury Department issued a joint statement on Monday stating that a trade deal must include “a detailed and enforceable commitment from the Chinese” in light of “China’s history of making commitments that it fails to keep”.
The US argued that the demand “in no way constitutes a threat to Chinese sovereignty”.
China’s white paper did not specifically mention the US demand for an enforcement mechanism as an issue, but it has repeatedly accused the US of “bullying” and making demands that infringe on its sovereignty.