China urges US to eliminate tariffs, ‘adjust’ policies to improve ties

Beijing, Feb 22 (efe-epa).- China on Monday urged the United States to “adjust” its policies, eliminate the tariffs it has imposed on Chinese products and give up “unwarranted suspicions” about Beijing to improve bilateral ties that worsened during former US President Donald Trump’s tenure.

“We hope that the US side will adjust its policies as soon as possible, among others, remove unreasonable tariffs on Chinese goods, lift its unilateral sanctions on Chinese companies and research and educational institutes, and abandon irrational suppression of China’s technological progress, so as to create necessary conditions for China-US cooperation,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

The minister was speaking at a forum on US-China bilateral ties.

According to a transcript of his speech posted on the Chinese foreign ministry website, Wang urged the US “to stop smearing” the Communist Party of China (CPC ) and China’s political system.

The minister said the US should “stop conniving at or even supporting the erroneous words and actions of separatist forces for ‘Taiwan independence’, and stop undermining China’s sovereignty and security on internal affairs concerning Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet.”

Wang described Xinjiang and Tibet as “shining examples of China’s human rights progress” and said that they have benefited from policies to eliminate abject poverty in the country.

The foreign minister acknowledged that in recent years bilateral ties had reached their lowest point since the establishment of diplomatic relations.

“The root cause was that the previous US administration, out of its own political needs, seriously distorted China’s future path and policy, and on that basis, took various measures to suppress and contain China, which inflicted immeasurable damage to bilateral relations,” Wang said.

Wand said that China is aware that the new US administration is “reviewing and assessing its foreign policy” and hoped that “US policy makers will keep pace with the time, see clearly the trend of the world, abandon biases, give up unwarranted suspicions, and move to bring the China policy back to reason to ensure a healthy and steady development of China-US relations.”

For bilateral relations to return to the right track, “the walls of misperceptions must be torn down first to clear the way for knowing, observing, and understanding China as it is” and “not to interfere in each other’s internal affairs,” Wang stressed.

“There is a greater need to respect each other, rather than being fixated on remodeling, suppressing or even defeating the other. Such attempts have not succeeded, and never will,” according to the Chinese foreign minister.

“China is, as always, open to dialogue. We stand ready to have candid communication with the US side, and engage in dialogues aimed at solving problems,” he added.

Wang said that China is ready to coordinate policies and work with the US in the fight against Covid-19, climate change, and global economic recovery, which he described as the “three most pressing tasks for the international community.”

Finally, Wang asked for the resumption of exchanges between the two countries at all levels which, in his opinion, had been “poisoned” during the Trump era.

US-China relations worsened dramatically during Trump’s four-year tenure.

The bilateral ties are at their lowest point since their establishment in 1979.

Besides the mutual imposition of trade tariffs, the situation led to the closure of the US consulate in Chengdu city, in response to the closure of a Chinese consulate in Houston.

Moreover, the US Department of Defense has accused several Chinese companies of being controlled by the Chinese Army and blamed China for the current Covid-19 pandemic, while also criticizing Beijing over the new security law in Hong Kong and the human rights situation of the Muslims in the northwestern Xinjiang province. EFE-EPA

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