Three top Democratic senators, in a rare show of bipartisanship, on Wednesday urged US President Donald Trump to stand up to China as he prepares to launch an inquiry into Beijing’s intellectual property and trade practices in coming days.
US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer pressed Trump to skip the investigation and go straight to trade action against China.
“We should certainly go after them,” Schumer said in a statement.
Senators Ron Wyden and Sherrod Brown also urged Trump to rein in China.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated in recent months as Trump has pressed China to cut steel production to ease global oversupply and rein in North Korea’s missile program.
Sources familiar with the current discussions said Trump was expected to issue a presidential memorandum in coming days, citing Chinese theft of intellectual property as a problem.
The EU, Japan, Germany and Canada have all expressed concern over China’s behavior on intellectual property theft.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer would then initiate an investigation under Section 301 of the US’ 1974 Trade Act, which allows the president to unilaterally impose tariffs or other trade restrictions to protect US industries, the sources said.
Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, wrote to Lighthizer urging action to stop China from pressuring US technology companies into giving up intellectual property rights.
Wyden’s state of Oregon is home to several companies that could make a case regarding intellectual property rights and China, including Nike Inc and FLIR Systems Inc.
It is unclear whether such a probe would result in trade sanctions against China, which Beijing would almost certainly challenge before the WTO.
The Chinese embassy in Washington said that China “opposes unilateral actions and trade protectionism in any form.”
A spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce yesterday told reporters in Beijing that China puts a strong emphasis on intellectual property rights and that all WTO members should respect the rules of the organization.
“We hope the positive momentum of cooperation can continue” following recent bilateral trade talks, Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng (高峰) said.
Meantime, state media have signaled the nation would hit back against any trade measures, as it has done in past episodes.
This time around, the need to project strength domestically is compounded by the looming twice-a-decade leadership reshuffle that might further entrench President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) power.
“Ahead of the 19th Party Congress, the last thing that China will want is a trade war,” said Callum Henderson, a managing director for the Asia-Pacific region at Eurasia Group in Singapore.
“It is also important that Beijing does not look weak in this context. As such, expect a cautious, proportional response,” he said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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