China hails phase one trade war deal signing, with focus on strategic value over specific details

A Chinese translation surfaced eight hours after the deal was signed, with state media running supportive editorials with loose details of the phase one agreement

Liu He briefed reporters in Washington after the signing, saying the concessions made by China to the US would be available to other trading partners too

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US President Donald Trump signed the deal with Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Photo: EPA-EFE

Zhou Xinin Hong Kong,Finbarr Berminghamin BrusselsandSidney Lengin Hong Kong

Published: 9:38am, 16 Jan 2020Updated: 1:54pm, 17 Apr 2020

China awoke on Thursday morning to news of a phase one trade deal with the United States signed overnight, hailed as “win-win” by Vice-Premier Liu He, but the details of what the agreement contained were not available inside China until more than eight hours after the event.

China’s Ministry of Finance published both English and Chinese versions of the text at around 10.30am, hours after the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) posted a 96-page English-language version of the deal, including attachments, outlining commitments China made in areas such as intellectual property, market access, currency and imports – however as expected, granular detail on individual commodity purchases were absent.

State media outlet CCTV and its English-language network CGTN provided live coverage of the signing ceremony between Liu and US President Donald Trump after midnight local time. However, the simultaneous translation cut out when Vice-President Mike Pence, a known China hawk, started speaking.

State media talked up the fact that after 18 months of hard slog, the world’s two largest economies had finally found enough common ground to sign what is seen internationally as a relatively low-end agreement.

The White House published a full transcription of the lengthy signing ceremony, including a full translation of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s letter to Trump, read aloud by Liu. Again, there was no immediate mention of this in China’s government media organs.

The official Xinhua News Agency published an editorial on Thursday morning saying that the phase one deal showed China and the US are looking for “a more reasonable approach” to managing their differences. But it warned that the deal should only be considered “a good start” to address a dispute that is “long-term, complicated and arduous”.

Most analysts would agree with this sentiment, especially since on the same day Liu and Trump signed the deal in front of a packed White House East Room, the US was preparing to unleash new restrictions on Chinese telecoms giant Huawei’s access to US technology.