Xi calls out ‘selfish’ trade policies
QINGDAO: Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country is locked in a high-stakes trade dispute with the United States, yesterday said China rejects “selfish, shortsighted” trade policies, and called for building an open global economy.
Mr Xi did not mention the United States during a speech at a summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional security bloc led by China and Russia.
“We reject selfish, shortsighted, closed, narrow policies, [we] uphold World Trade Organisation rules, support a multilateral trade system, and building an open world economy,” Mr Xi said in a speech in the port city of Qingdao.
The United States and China have threatened tit-for-tat tariffs on goods worth up to US$150 billion each, as President Donald Trump has pushed Beijing to open its economy further and address the United States’ large trade deficit with China.
Mr Xi spoke hours after Mr Trump said he was backing out of the Group of Seven communique, thwarting what appeared to be a fragile consensus on a trade dispute between Washington and its top allies.
“We must ... discard Cold War thinking, group confrontation; we object to acts of getting one’s own absolute security at the cost of other countries’ security,” Mr Xi said.
The SCO was launched in 2001 to combat radical Islam and other security concerns in China, Russia and across Central Asia.
Meanwhile, also speaking at the summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin criticised the US withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Putin emphasised that the bloc members are worried about t he US move. The bloc includes China, Russia along with four ex-Soviet Central Asian nations, as well as India and Pakistan.
Mr Putin said Washington’s decision to exit the agreement could “destabilise the situation’’ in the region.
Last month, President Donald Trump pulled out of former President Barack Obama’s landmark 2015 nuclear accord with Iran over the objections of European allies and other nations.