Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that China wants to reach an initial trade deal with the US, but is “not afraid” to fight back when necessary.
It is rare for Xi to speak so directly about the trade dispute and his comments came two days after US President Donald Trump said that Beijing had not made sufficient concessions so far, making him reluctant to conclude a bargain.
“As we always said, we don’t want to start the trade war, but we are not afraid,” Xi told former US officials and other foreign dignitaries at a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
“When necessary, we will fight back, but we have been working actively to try not to have a trade war,” he told the group, which included former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, former US treasury secretary Henry Paulson and former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd.
Trump on Oct. 11 announced a “phase one” deal resolving important US grievances about Chinese trade and currency practices.
However, more than a month later, the two sides have yet to finalize the text of any agreement. US officials want large purchases of US farm exports.
Top trade negotiators spoke on the phone on Saturday last week in what the Chinese Ministry of Commerce described as “constructive” discussions on a preliminary deal.
China has insisted on a rollback of existing tariffs, which Trump said he has not agreed to.
“I can tell you this: China would much rather make a trade deal than I would,” Trump said on Wednesday. “I don’t think they’re stepping up to the level that I want.”
US Congress approval this week of legislation supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong has also cast a shadow on the negotiations.
“We want to work for a phase-one agreement on the basis of mutual respect and equality,” Xi told the foreign visitors, who were in town for the Bloomberg New Economy Forum.
Xi warned that the trade talks “may affect the future prospects of the world economy” but China holds a “positive attitude.”
Enodo Economics chief economist Diana Choyleva said that Xi’s comments do not mean that Beijing is about to go on the offensive.
However, “it certainly reaffirms my expectation that China’s not going to budge,” Choyleva told reporters at the forum.
Kissinger on Thursday told the forum that the trade dispute could potentially lead to armed conflict if it goes unresolved.
If the two sides keep seeing “every issue in the world in terms of conflict” with each other, it could be “dangerous for mankind,” Kissinger said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”