Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday rejected suggestions that his country could dissociate or separate from the United States and other trading partners amid tension with Washington and Europe over technology and security.
Speaking via video link from Beijing to a meeting of Asia-Pacific CEOs, Xi promised to further open up the China market, but did not announce initiatives to respond to complaints that the ruling Communist Party improperly subsidizes and protects technology and other technologies industries of foreign competitors.
Xi rejected suggestions that Beijing could respond to US sanctions on its tech startups by trying to separate its industries from global trading partners.
The ruling Communist Party has promoted its own standards for mobile phones and other technologies, which would encourage customers who adopt them to use Chinese providers. That has raised fears that world markets will split into smaller segments with incompatible industry standards, hurting productivity.
“We will never go back in history seeking to disengage or form a ‘little circle’ to keep others out,” Xi said.
Thursday’s event came ahead of a meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders hosted by Malaysia. Friday’s meeting will be held over the Internet due to the pandemic.
Xi’s comments came after the signing of the world’s largest free trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Association, on Sunday by Beijing and 14 other Asian neighbors.
The RCEP, initiated by China, attracts other developing countries by reducing barriers to trade in agricultural products, manufactured goods and components, which make up the majority of their exports. It says little about trade in services and the access of companies to operate in the economies of others, what the United States and other developed countries want.
The Trump administration has cut off Chinese tech giant Huawei from most American components and technology for security reasons. Washington has shut Huawei and a rival Chinese telecommunications equipment supplier, ZTE, out of the US market. The White House is pressuring the Chinese owner of the TikTok video service to sell its US operation, which US officials say is a security risk.
Xi promised to cut tariffs but did not give details.
“We will further reduce tariffs and institutional costs, cultivate a series of import trade promotion innovation demonstration zones, and expand imports of high-quality products and services from various countries,” he said.
China’s repeated promises to establish trade zones and ease import restrictions draw complaints from the United States, Europe, Japan, and other trading partners that Beijing is using such isolated steps to avoid keeping promises made when it joined the Organization. World Trade in 2001 to allow foreign companies to compete freely in its economy.
China is one of the world’s largest importers, but the United States and other governments complain that Beijing is slow to deliver on two-decade promises to open its markets to foreign competitors in banking, finance and other services.
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