China’s top diplomat hit out at Washington’s “bewildering” trade policy during a news conference Thursday on the sidelines of a political gathering in Beijing, where Chinese leaders have been championing high-tech development in the face of mounting curbs from Washington.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi accused the US of “devising various tactics to suppress China” and said Washington’s “lengthening” unilateral sanctions list had reached “bewildering levels of unfathomable absurdity.”
“If it gets jittery whenever it hears the word China, where is its confidence as a major country?” Wang said in a response to a question about trade with the US and technological restrictions.
“If it only wants itself to prosper, but denies other countries legitimate development, where is international fairness? If it persistently monopolizes the high end of the value chain and keeps China at the low end, where is fairness and competition?”
His comments come as Washington continues its drive to narrow the kinds of high-end technology that can be accessed by China. In October, the White House further reduced the types of semiconductors that US companies can sell in China as it aims to ensure American tech won’t be used to bolster the Chinese military.
The US has also enacted sanctions against Chinese actors over a host of issues in recent years, including allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the illicit fentanyl trade and providing support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Wang’s comments come during a period of relative stability in the US-China relationship following a summit between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November.
Wang added that there have been “some improvements” in China-US relations since that meeting and called on Washington to work with Beijing “to bring the relationship back on the track of stable, sound and sustainable development.”
Bolstering “self-reliance and strength in science and technology” has been a key theme of China’s “two sessions” ongoing political gathering this week, where Beijing boosted its annual budget for science and technology by 10% to an unprecedented 370.8 billion yuan ($51.6 billion) — the biggest increase since 2019 after years of minimal growth.
