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
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.
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.
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.
Chinese tabloid the Global Times reiterated that this should not be viewed as a “one-sided win” and hoped that more than a dozen rounds of painstaking negotiations could be instructive for China and the US in “curbing the impulse for confrontation” in the future.
The biggest takeaway from the deal is that both sides didn’t give up contacts and negotiation, didn’t give up the difficult search for consensus,
“The biggest takeaway from the deal is that both sides didn’t give up contacts and negotiation, didn’t give up the difficult search for consensus,” the editorial read.
Meanwhile, independent Chinese business magazine Caixin ran comments made by Liu at a press conference held for select Chinese media in Washington after the agreement was signed. Liu said that China’s commitments on intellectual property rights protection, technology transfer and financial market opening would also be applied to China’s other trading partners.
Trump made a point of announcing that negotiations for a phase two deal would begin immediately. “Negotiating with Liu is very tough. But [tariffs] will all come off as soon as we finish phase two,” Trump said.
Again, though, there was no mention of phase two in any Chinese state media. Chinese analysts, however, accepted that this is where the real hard work will begin.
“The phase two deal may involve more difficult domestic regulatory issues such as subsidies, state-owned enterprises, and internet supervision,” said Wang Heng, a professor focused on trade law from the University of New South Wales in Australia. “Due to the complexity of the negotiations, it remains to be seen whether the two parties can reach a second-stage agreement. If market competition rules such as subsidies are not agreed upon, economic and trade frictions may continue and affect the two countries and the international economy.”
“Since the trade war started, the strategic mutual trust between China and the United States has retrogressed. Frictions and disputes in other areas have also occurred frequently. We need to prepare comprehensively for the complexity of Sino-US relations and long-term battle.”
Note: This article was updated at 11.00am after China’s Ministry of Finance published the text of the deal on its website.
