Global Times: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on multiple occasions stressed that the Chinese economy is over-dependent on export and that the U.S. wants fair and reciprocal trade ties. What’s China’s comment?

Mao Ning: You can find in this year’s Report on the Work of the Government that “stimulating domestic demand across the board” is listed as the first of the ten major tasks for this year. The report also stresses that China will vigorously expand domestic demand across the board and make it a key driver and stabilizing force for economic growth.

The China-U.S. trade, as it is now, is the result of market forces with multiple factors at play, including the two countries’ economic structures and trade policies as well as the position of the U.S. dollar. China never seeks a trade surplus. The fact is, the U.S. has benefited abundantly from trade with China. If you look at the breakdown of statistics, the exports of China-based U.S. companies are also counted as China’s trade surplus. The high-quality products at reduced cost exported by China to the U.S. have essentially raised the purchasing power of U.S. consumers, and created a huge amount of jobs in the U.S., particularly in sectors such as transport, wholesale, retail and e-commerce. By the way, the U.S. continues to run a huge surplus in trade in services.

China-U.S. trade and economic ties benefit both sides. If one had been ripping the other off, there is no way the ties would have come this far as we see today. To call the economic ties a “rip-off” and pursue absolute reciprocity in trade goes against the most basic economic common sense and those who do so are underestimating the judgement of U.S. companies and consumers. No matter what the purported rationale is, it cannot hide the U.S.’s aim of politicizing and weaponizing trade issues to contain and go after China. It’s been years and years since the U.S. initiated the trade war against the rest of the world, yet it has not stopped U.S. trade deficit from going up and reaching US$918.4 billion last year. Whether it’s a tariff war or a trade war, they invariably start by hurting others before coming back to hurt the one who launched it. It’s time for the U.S. to learn its lesson and end this wrong practice. 

(Source: Chinese Foreign Ministry Website)