China’s hawkish new face in US talks Zhong Shan ‘shows Beijing is not close to a trade deal’
- Commerce minister tells People’s Daily ‘US started this economic and trade dispute’ and that ‘we must make the best of the spirit of struggle’
- Beijing is in no hurry to reach a deal, analyst says: ‘It looks like China is waiting to see what happens after the 2020 election’
China must uphold “the spirit of struggle” in defending national interests in its current trade war with the US, the country’s commerce minister, who recently joined the negotiations, said.
Zhong Shan, who took part in a telephone conversation with the leaders of the US negotiation team last week, made clear that the US side should be held solely accountable for the trade conflict that has become a drag on the global economy.
The remarks were made as officials from the two nations prepared for further talks. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that he and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer may travel to Beijing for trade negotiations if talks by telephone this week are productive.
“We expect to have another principal-level call this week, and to the extent we make significant progress, I think there’s a good chance we’ll go there later,” Mnuchin said on Monday at a briefing for reporters at the White House.
The planned phone call would be the second time the countries’ top trade negotiators have spoken since US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping called a truce in their year-long trade war at a meeting during the Group of 20 summit at the end of June. The leaders agreed to restart talks about a trade deal, which had collapsed in May, but they gave no concrete time frame to reach a deal.