China should cooperate with all nations, not be put off by US’ aggressive trade war tactics, academic says
- Ramping up rhetoric and punishing American firms is no way to end the year-long conflict, according to Peking University scholar Wang Jisi
- Beijing should promote the positives of bilateral relations to prevent them ‘plunging into the dark hole of long-term confrontation’
China should cut the tough talk, stop trying to punish American companies and look for more ways to cooperate with the United States if it wants to bring about an end to the trade war, a prominent Chinese academic and expert on US affairs said on Thursday.
With concerns rising that the conflict might force a “decoupling” of the world’s two largest economies, Wang Jisi, dean of the school of international studies at Peking University, said it was time for Beijing to rein in the rhetoric.
“China should step up cooperation with nations, including the US, on economic, trade and technology issues,” he said in a commentary published by the Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper.
“As the US government is restricting Huawei, Huawei should insist on cooperating with US enterprises … There is no need to ban Apple in China.”
Beijing did not have to adopt a tough stance just because Washington had done so, he said. Instead, it should pursue greater engagement with those nations where the US had sought to spread the idea of the “China threat”.