China sets no timetable: FM
▶ Trump’s ‘no deadline’ a bluff for quick trade deal
China has no timetable for reaching a trade deal with the US or not doing so, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday, reiterating that trade talks should be based on equality and mutual respect, while a result should be of mutual benefit and accepted by both sides.
“The US repeatedly says ‘a trade deal is coming,’ ‘no deal,’ ‘hope when to reach a deal,’ ‘I don’t want a deal.’” But China never says these things, right?” Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, told a briefing on Wednesday.
Hua said China’s stance on the trade issue is constant and clear. “We believe a trade war doesn’t conform to any side’s interests. Amid globalization, the interests of China and the US are highly intertwined and their cooperation is key to a global economic recovery and growth,” she said, noting that the whole world hopes the two countries can reach a win-win trade deal through talks.
However, if faced with unilateralism, protectionism and trade hegemony, China has no choice but to take resolute and decisive measures to protect its justified and legitimate rights, she said.
Hua’s comment came after US President Donald Trump indicated that trade talks with China may drag on after the US presidential election in November 2020.
“I have no deadline, no,” Trump told reporters in London, Reuters reported. “In some ways, I like the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal. But they want to make a deal now, and we’ll see whether or not the deal’s going to be right; it’s got to be right,” he said.
Trump’s “no deadline” comment is a bluff that he’s using to threaten China to make concessions so as to fit to his political purposes, Huo Jianguo, vice chairman of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies, told the Global Times.
Following Trump’s remarks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 1 percent to 27,502.81. The S&P 500 was down 0.66 percent to 3,093.20.
By contrast, Chinese A-share markets remained stable. Although the Shanghai Composite Index slid 0.23 percent to 2,878.12 on Wednesday, the index in Shenzhen climbed 0.31 percent to 9,687.95 points.
China has sufficient strength and has made full preparations, so China needs not to panic over Trump’s remarks, Mei Xinyu, a research fellow at the Ministry of Commerce’s Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times.
Compared with the initial period of the trade war about 18 months ago, China has become more composed amid the steady improvement in its economic fundamentals.
China’s purchasing managers’ index for the manufacturing sector strengthened to expansion at 50.2 in November from October’s 49.3.