China Again Denies Trade Calls Mentioned by Trump, Urges Against Decoupling
A China Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson denied knowledge for a second straight day of China's top trade negotiators phoning their U.S. counterparts over the weekend urging the resumption of talks toward a comprehensive trade deal, as President Donald Trump claimed they had on the sidelines of the G-7 summit.
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“I'm not aware of the two phone calls over the weekend that the U.S. side talked about,” spokesperson Geng Shuang said Aug. 27. “The two sides have held 12 rounds of high-level consultations and the two teams have remained in contact,” he said. “Regrettably, however, the U.S. recently decided to add new tariffs on Chinese goods as a measure to impose maximum pressure, which is not constructive at all as it serves no one's interests.” China hopes the U.S. “will remain calm, return to reason, and immediately stop its wrong approach.” Geng declined to answer a reporter's question about when the next round of negotiations will take place. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn’t comment.
The press conference was held one day after Geng first denied knowledge of the phone calls, saying during an Aug. 26 press conference: “I can tell you clearly that I have not heard of this situation.” Geng suggested Trump’s claims were an attempt to ease fears of U.S. companies and industries that are concerned about the possibility of negotiations breaking down.
“We have noticed that the U.S.'s efforts to upgrade trade frictions have caused concern among all sectors of society in the United States and have caused widespread concern in the international community,” Geng said. “We hope that the U.S. can return to rationality as soon as possible.”
Geng also criticized Trump’s Aug. 23 tweet in which the president “ordered” U.S. companies to leave China. “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA,” Trump tweeted.
Geng said decoupling from China would be a mistake, threaten global supply chains and “endanger” international trade. “I want to emphasize that the ‘decoupling’ between the Chinese and American economies is not a good way to ease Sino-US economic and trade frictions, nor is it a way to solve the problems of the United States itself,” Geng said. “Again, the decoupling from the Chinese economy is decoupling from the opportunity, decoupling from the world and decoupling from the future.”