‘Bullying and blackmail’: China could retaliate as US moves to curb Huawei’s business with executive order, blacklist
- Chinese envoy to the EU says Beijing will not ‘sit idly by’ as US ‘undermines Chinese companies’ legitimate rights and interests’
- Ambassador Zhang Ming warns US ‘not to go further down the wrong path, to avoid further disturbances to China-US relations’
China could retaliate against the US after President Donald Trump blacklisted Huawei Technologies, the Chinese ambassador to the European Union said.
Trump upped the ante in his trade dispute with China last week, announcing moves to curb Huawei’s business that are starting to have ramifications for other companies around the world.
“This is wrong behaviour, so there will be a necessary response,” Zhang Ming, China’s envoy to the EU, said in an interview in Brussels on Monday.
“Chinese companies’ legitimate rights and interests are being undermined, so the Chinese government will not sit idly by.”
Trump on Friday signed an order that could restrict Huawei and fellow Chinese telecommunications company ZTE from selling their equipment in the US.
The Trump administration, which says Chinese companies are obliged to aid Beijing in espionage, also put Huawei on a blacklist that could forbid it from doing business with American companies.
Calling the moves “politically motivated” and an “abuse of export-control measures,” Zhang said “the US government is trying to bring down Huawei through administrative means.”
He added that China would “make the best possible effort to defend the legitimate right and interests of Chinese companies” and urged Washington “not to go further down the wrong path, to avoid further disturbances to China-US relations”.
At a regular news briefing in Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said earlier on Monday to “wait and see” with regards to what countermeasures the Chinese government and enterprises could take in response to the US measures against Huawei.
Washington’s actions come as the US seeks to pressure China into agreeing to a wide-ranging trade deal. After Trump this month escalated a trade war with China through tariff increases on US$200 billion of Chinese goods and a plan to impose levies on all further US imports from the country,
Zhang accused Washington of undermining more than a year of talks on an agreement.
“The United States has been repeatedly creating troubles to the consultation, undermining the positive momentum formed in the process of hard and tough negotiations and seeking illegitimate gains through bullying and blackmail,” Zhang said.
He said China would refuse to back down in the face of such tactics while keeping the door open to dialogue, citing Chinese unity with Europe and other parts of the world in defending the global trade system and asserting the US is isolated as a result of its unilateralism and protectionism.
“China has unwavering resolve to defend its legitimate right and interests,” Zhang said. “If the US wants to fight, we will accompany to the end and we will also fight earnestly. In other words, the ball is in the US court.”
We have been holding on for 5,000 years. Why not another 5,000 years?
With anti-US sentiment in China growing to the point that a privately produced Chinese trade-war fight song has gone viral in Beijing, he stressed unity and resolve in the country. He also emphasised the longevity of Chinese civilisation.
“We have been holding on for 5,000 years,” Zhang said. “Why not another 5,000 years?”
