In the context of the United States continuously overgeneralizing national security issues and expanding its suppression of Chinese enterprises, the commerce ministers of China and the United States had a telephone conversation on the 8th.
According to the news from the Ministry of Commerce of China, during the call between Minister Wang Wentao and US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on the 8th, he expressed serious concerns about the US's semiconductor policy towards China and restrictions on Chinese connected vehicles. Wang Wentao emphasized that it is particularly necessary to clarify the national security boundaries in the economic and trade fields, which is conducive to maintaining the security and stability of the global industrial chain and supply chain and creating a good policy environment for cooperation between the business communities of the two countries. China urges the US to pay attention to the specific concerns of Chinese enterprises, lift sanctions on Chinese enterprises as soon as possible, and improve the business environment for Chinese enterprises in the US.
Wang Wentao said that China-US economic and trade relations should be the ballast stone of bilateral relations. On the basis of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation, China is willing to work with the US to implement the consensus reached at the summit between the heads of state and push China-US economic and trade relations back onto the right track.
On the 8th, the website of Radio France Internationale described the latest call between Chinese and American officials as "serious differences." According to the press release issued by the US Department of Commerce, Raimondo claimed that the US business community has expressed continuous concerns about China's "regulatory transparency," "non-market-oriented policies and practices," and the so-called "structural overcapacity" in industrial sectors. And, as always, she attributed various trade restrictions and suppression policies against China to safeguarding "US national security," claiming that this is "non-negotiable." But the press release finally mentioned that the US and China agreed to maintain open communication channels in the coming months.
On August 28, 2023, Wang Wentao held talks with Raimondo, who was visiting Beijing, and announced the establishment of a new communication channel between the commerce departments of China and the United States, including the establishment of a China-US business and trade working group and holding two vice-ministerial-level meetings annually. The commerce ministers of China and the United States agreed to communicate regularly and meet at least once a year.
The latest call on the 8th is precisely the institutional communication arrangement between the commerce departments of the two countries. Under this communication mechanism, Wang Shouwen, China's deputy minister in charge of international trade negotiations and vice minister, held the second vice-ministerial-level meeting of the China-US business and trade working group with US Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves in Tianjin last month. According to the news from the US Department of Commerce, the commerce ministers of China and the US also discussed last month's meeting during the call on the 8th.
Wang Yong, director of the Center for International Political and Economic Studies at Peking University, told the Global Times on the 9th that as the two most important economies in the world, it is the common responsibility of China and the United States to eliminate misunderstandings, seek to expand cooperation, and reduce the negative impact of mismanagement of economic and trade issues on the global economy. The necessity of managing differences between China and the US and preventing risks from expanding is obvious, and the communication channels established between China and the US will play an important role in this regard.
According to a report by the South China Morning Post on the 8th, as senior commerce officials of the two countries were in communication, the Biden administration of the United States has been continuously increasing restrictions on high-tech trade with China. Last month, the Biden administration announced that it is seeking to ban the sale of smart connected vehicles and vehicles with autonomous driving technology that use Chinese and Russian hardware or software in the United States. This is the latest in a series of restrictions. At the same time, the United States is constantly pressuring its allies to tighten export restrictions on Chinese semiconductor equipment and has significantly increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, solar cells and other products since the end of September.
Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on the 9th that during this call, China once again expressed its consistent stance on handling bilateral economic and trade relations, China's key concerns, and its determination to safeguard the interests of Chinese enterprises. Li Haidong said, "The fundamental differences between China and the US on economic and trade issues lie in two paths: supporting globalization or opposing globalization. China emphasizes that economic and trade issues cannot be overgeneralized into security issues to ensure the safety and stability of the global production and supply chain. However, the US goes against this trend, continuously overgeneralizes national security, and tries to break the already formed pattern of economic globalization, resulting in the continuous fragmentation of the global economy."
Li Haidong believes that this wrong approach of the US going against globalization is not conducive to the process of economic globalization and will ultimately harm the interests of the United States itself. The United States should give up its wrong practices of politicizing economic and trade issues and overgeneralizing national security as soon as possible. Abide by WTO rules, return to multilateralism, work with China to maintain the global economic and trade order, and safeguard the safety and stability of the global production and supply chain.