China warned the United States on Thursday not to open Pandora\u2019s Box and spark a flurry of protectionist practices across the globe, even as Beijing pointed to US goods that it could target in a deepening Sino-US trade dispute. China could target a broad range of US businesses from agriculture to aircraft, autos, semiconductors and even services if the trade conflict escalates, the official China Daily newspaper said in an editorial on Thursday.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump\u2019s move last week to slap up to $60 billion in tariffs on some Chinese imports has since provoked a warning from Beijing that it could retaliate with duties of up to $3 billion of US imports.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s biggest US imports are aircraft and related equipment, soybeans and autos, with the total bill about $40 billion last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe malicious practices of the United States are like opening Pandora\u2019s Box, and there is a danger of triggering a chain reaction that will spread the virus of trade protectionism across the globe,\u201d a commerce ministry spokesman said.<\/p>\n
The official line from China continues to be stern even as Beijing says it is all for dialogue and negotiations. The feedback from US and Chinese officials on the nature and extent of trade talks remains mixed, media reports show.<\/p>\n
The Financial Times reported only on Monday that China had offered to buy more US micro-chips and move more quickly to finalise rules allowing foreign firms to take majority stakes in Chinese securities firms, citing people briefed on the negotiations.<\/p>\n
Chinese customs data shows the US accounted for just $2.6 billion, or 1 percent, of China\u2019s total semiconductor imports last year by value, with suppliers in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan commanding a bigger share.<\/p>\n
But a source in the US semiconductor industry said US companies have slightly more than 50 percent of China\u2019s market for chips, though export data doesn\u2019t reflect that because much of the product is sent off-shore for low value added processing.<\/p>\n
The source said the US semiconductor industry had not asked the Trump administration to urge China to buy more US chips and had been told by senior U.S. officials that the U.S. government had not made such a request to Beijing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t need China to buy more chips,\u201d the source said, adding that U.S. industry was concerned about being targeted by Chinese non-tariff barriers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more about (Chinese) subsidies, IP protection, and cyber rules,\u201d the source said, referring to concerns over Chinese retaliation.<\/p>\n
China has long said it would like to import more US high-tech goods, including high-end chips, but has been stymied by US export controls set on national security grounds.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s commerce ministry said on Thursday the US approach to trade could trigger a domino effect and U.S. trade protectionism will only hurt US consumers.<\/p>\n
While China hopes the US will resolve trade conflicts with China through dialogue, it will take all possible steps to protect its interests, ministry spokesman Gao Feng told a regular briefing in Beijing.<\/p>\n
\u201cNegotiations must be equal, and China will not accept any consultation under unilateral coercion,\u201d Gao said.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Trump\u2019s top trade envoy said he would give China a 60-day window before tariffs on Chinese goods take effect, but added that it would take years to bring the two countries\u2019 trading relationship \u201cto a good place.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tariff list is expected in the next several days.<\/p>\n
The China Daily on Thursday quoted Premier Li Keqiang as telling a US Congressional delegation this week that China was open to dialogue but \u201cfully prepared with countermeasures\u201d.<\/p>\n
It warned that if the conflict continued to escalate \u201cChina could consider taking reciprocal measures against US imports of agricultural products besides soybeans, as well as aircraft, automobiles and semiconductors.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd should the Trump administration further obstruct Chinese investments in the US, even tougher measures such as restrictions on imports of US services and similar investment reviews would likely be on the table,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China warned the United States on Thursday not to open Pandora\u2019s Box and spark a flurry of protectionist practices across the globe, even as Beijing pointed to US goods that it could target in a deepening Sino-US trade dispute. China could target a broad range of US businesses from agriculture to aircraft, autos, semiconductors and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26349,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26347\/revisions\/26349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}