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Friday 31 May 2019

China accuses US of 'economic terrorism' as trade war tensions escalate

In the center of the attacks by China and the United States on the part of the economic war that continues, China now accuses the Trump administration of committing ‘economic terrorism’ on Thursday. In this way, it has intensified its war of words with the United States amid the growing commercial tensions between both nations.

Thus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has indicated that the White House “brought huge damage to the economy of other countries and the US itself”. This was what I expressed during Thursday to the press spokesman Lu Kang in Beijing. Similarly, Lu described US trade policy as “typical economic terrorism, economic hegemonism, and economic unilateralism”.

It is important to emphasize that this statement followed equally sinister rhetoric from the Chinese state media, which issued a stern message to Washington on Wednesday: “Do not say we did not warn you”.


Facts to highlight


It is necessary to indicate that, the People’s Daily, the newspaper of the ruling Communist Party, used the loaded phrase in a commentary on Wednesday, in which it said that China would “never accept” the US ‘suppression of Chinese development. Likewise, the warning came when China’s leading economic planning agency suggested it would be willing to curb exports of rare earth minerals, which are crucial for high-tech manufacturing.

It should be noted that the negotiations have now stalled, with each side blaming the other for the recent setbacks. Speaking in Japan on Monday, US President Donald Trump said he was “not ready” to make a deal. And it is well known that the United States imports much more from China than China. Therefore, this is established as one of the reasons for the commercial war. As China runs out of US imports of tariffs, it has turned to its exports of rare earths as a new potential battlefield.

Now, while rare earths could be a potential point of pain for Washington, they may not be the advantage that some in China think. In fact, Eugene Gholz, who has advised the United States government on rare earths, wrote in a report to the Council on Foreign Relations that China’s influence on the rare earth market peaked in 2010 and that then it had been difficult to exploit in favor of Beijing.


Source: Ben Westcott, Serenitie Wang and Rob Picheta | CNN

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