Long-arm trade coercion
The United States seems intent on initiating long-term trade wars with almost all other countries and wantonly shaking the global stock markets and industrial value chains. The additional tariffs the US is threatening to implement against China, for instance, will raise the operating costs of the world economy, hinder the spread of technology and innovation and lower global productivity, efficiency and investment, and thus cast a shadow over the global recovery.
That the US tries using forced technology transfers as an excuse for its tariffs against China sets a very bad example. It is a basic development right for developing countries to advance their industrialization and modernization through taking part in normal international trade and investment. The Chinese government has never forced multinational companies to transfer technology to Chinese companies. All the technology transfers between the two sides follow normal business practice. And in the current global labor distribution system dominated by multinational companies, the developed countries, with the US as the key representative, are the largest beneficiary of technology transfers.
It is normal business practice for multinational corporations to relocate projects and make investment in places around the world according to their own needs, and this has formed the global industrial and value chains.
The Donald Trump administration, however, is abusing the label of “traitor” to put pressure on US enterprises, threatening them with additional tax, to force them to return to the US. The intimidation and coercion have rudely interfered with the normal business decisions of enterprises and distorted the global market economy.
The tariffs on trade partners in violation of world trade rules are also a tax on enterprises in all countries that make up the global industrial chains.
The international community should join hands to fight against the trade bullying of the US.
The arbitrary application of long-arm jurisdiction by the US poses huge threats to enterprises from other countries and could irreparably harm the international economic and trade order.
— PEOPLE’S DAILY