Top Beijing official attacks US over WTO reforms, and says China economy is not as developed as claimed

Head of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences says doubts about country’s economic status come from ignorance

Thinly veiled attack comes days before President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump meet in Argentina

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Xie Fuzhan, chairman of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was speaking at a conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 8:33pm, 27 Nov 2018Updated: 11:52pm, 27 Nov 2018

A top Beijing official hit back at attempts to change the country’s economic status as part of reforms to the World Trade Organisation during a conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

While fighting a trade war with the United States, China is also battling to avoid being designated as a developed country, which would impact the benefits it presently enjoys as a developing one.

Xie Fuzhan, president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said doubts China was still developing came from a position of ignorance, and, among other things, did not take into account the lower-than-average income of Chinese workers.

In a thinly veiled attack on the United States, just days before President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump meet at the G20 Summit in Argentina, Xie, head of China’s top state think thank, accused “some countries” of “reckless unilateralism and protectionism”.

His comments came a day after Trump warned of a new wave of tariffs on Chinese exports, and a week after Kevin Hassett, chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, suggested there could be a case for kicking China out of the WTO altogether.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published on Monday, Trump said he was prepared to impose a tariff of either 10 per cent or 25 per cent on US$267 billion of imports from China, if Xi Jinping could not agree to further opening China’s market to US companies during the G20 Summit, which starts on Friday.

But Xie said China’s position in the global economy was “seriously overestimated”.

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