Beijing, Jun 2 (Agencies) China on Monday hit back at the US, accusing it of seriously violating their recent Geneva trade truce by introducing multiple restrictive measures like AI chip export control guidelines, stopping the sale of chip design software to China and revoking visas for Chinese students.
The US has seriously undermined the consensus reached during the China-US economic and trade talks in Geneva by successively introducing multiple discriminatory restrictive measures against China, a spokesperson for the Commerce Ministry said in a statement, refuting President Donald Trump’s allegation that China had “totally violated agreement with us”.
The US measures included issuing guidance on AI chip export controls, halting sales of chip design software to China, and announcing the revocation of visas for Chinese students, the spokesperson said.
It is significant that China has clubbed the student visas with that of trade and tariff-related issues.
About 2.7 lakh Chinese students, the second largest after India, studying in the US scrambled to work out their plans after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on May 29 that America would begin revoking the visas of some Chinese students, including those studying in “critical fields” and “those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party.”
These actions severely violated the consensus reached during a phone call between the two heads of state on Jan. 17 and gravely harmed China’s legitimate rights and interests, the statement said.
The US has unilaterally and repeatedly provoked new economic and trade frictions, exacerbating uncertainty and instability in bilateral economic and trade relations, the spokesperson said.
Both the US and China agreed to lower tit-for-tat tariffs after talks last month in Geneva. The truce is due to last 90 days to provide time for the top two economies to reach a broader substantive agreement to end their tariff war.
Trump imposed 145 per cent of tariffs against the Chinese exports of about USD 439.9 billion and China retaliated with 125 per cent on American exports of about USD 143 billion.
China also put restrictions on the exports of rare-earth minerals which are all critical materials for defence, new energy batteries, semiconductors and advanced manufacturing and Beijing has not lifted the curbs.
Under the Geneva agreement, the US lowered tariffs imposed on goods from China from 145 per cent to 30 per cent while China dropped its retaliatory tariffs from 125 per cent to 10 per cent.
The recriminations began after Trump said on Friday that China had “totally violated its agreement with us” but did not give details.
However, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer later said China had not been removing non-tariff barriers as agreed under the deal, according to reports from Washington.
Trump stirred further controversy Friday, saying he will no longer be nice to China on trade, declaring in a social media post that the country had broken an agreement with the United States.
Hours later, Trump said in the Oval Office that he would speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping and hopefully “we’ll work that out”, while still insisting China had violated the agreement.
“The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US,” Trump posted. “So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”
Greer later told TV network CNBC that China was yet to properly roll back other trade restrictions it had levied on the US, BBC reported.
Greer said when China responded to the US’s tariffs with its own, they also put in place countermeasures such as putting some US companies on blacklists and restricting exports of rare earth magnets, a critical component in cars, aircraft and semiconductors.
“They removed the tariff like we did but some of the countermeasures they’ve slowed on,” Greer said.
The strong statements from both sides have raised concerns that trade tensions could again escalate between the world’s two largest economies despite recent negotiations.
The US has unilaterally and repeatedly provoked new economic and trade frictions, exacerbating uncertainty and instability in bilateral economic and trade relations, the spokesperson said.
“Instead of reflecting on its own actions, the US has groundlessly accused China of violating the consensus, a claim that grossly distorts the facts. China firmly rejects these unjustified accusations,” the spokesperson said.
Calling the outcomes of the Geneva talks “hard-won,” the spokesperson said, “China is firm in safeguarding its rights and interests, and sincere in implementing the consensus” and urged the US to immediately correct its wrong practices, jointly uphold the consensus of the talks, and promote the healthy, stable and sustainable development of China-US economic and trade relations.
“If the US side insists on going the wrong way and continues to harm China’s interests, China will resolutely take forceful measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests, according to the spokesperson,” the spokesperson added.
