Ambassador Shi Ting Wang
CHINESE AMBASSADOR to Ghana, Shi Ting Wang, has called on the US to return to the appropriate track of bilateral economic and trade consultations to protect their trade relations.
He has also urged the US to negotiate with Beijing on the basis of equality and mutual respect, to forestall any unpleasant situation going forward.
Ambassador Wang’s advice follows the recent frictions that have characterised the China-US trade talks, which has caught the attention of the world.
According to Ambassador Wang, China would not want to be embroiled in any trade skirmishes with the United States.
“What will happen if the protectionism prevails?” he quizzed.
He said with the deepening development of globalization, trade war did no good to the economy.
“But the US waged it and brought the war to our doorstep. Under such circumstances, China doesn’t want a trade war”.
“First of all, China is a country with responsibility. In our cultural genes, there is a deep understanding of the idea “let others benefit when you succeed” and the belief of “if you want to go fast, walk alone; and if you want to go far, walk together””.
He continued that in 1997, when the Asian financial crisis broke out, China withstood tremendous pressure and insisted that its currency – RMB – did not depreciate, which not only stabilized the Chinese economy, but helped many countries and regions to emerge from the crisis.
Ambassador Wang said after the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008, China did not stand idly by, but shared the same boat with all parties.
“It has helped with the global economic recovery at an economic contribution rate of more than 30% for many years in a row.”
He said China was bent on remaining responsible to its peoples, the American people, and the rest of the world.
“China is committed to truly resolving the issue of China-US economic and trade frictions through talks and negotiations,” he emphasised.
In the China-US trade friction, he said China has expanded its import of US soybeans and lowered tariffs on some products which reflected sincerity.
“Even after the US raised the tariffs of US$200 billion on Chinese exports to the United States, China still sent a delegation to the US to conduct the eleventh round of high-level consultations. This shows that China has a strong will to keep the sincerity of solving the problem through negotiations until the last minute.”
Additionally, he said in the economic and trade frictions between China and the United States, China had always maintained great restraint and always taken great sincerity to carefully prepare for negotiations.
“China has long been integrated into the ocean of the world economy and has become part of it. China is pretty much confident to face the storm over the ocean.
In 2018, China’s total GDP surpassed 90 trillion RMB (about US$ 13.8 trillion), that is about 16% of the total global GDP, and its per capita GDP was close to $10,000.
In the first quarter of this year, China’s GDP grew by 6.4% year-on-year, and the growth rate exceeded expectations. Last year, Chinese consumption contribution to the economic growth reached 76.2%, and the domestic demand has become the main engine for China’s economic growth.
“These figures show that the Chinese economy is a big ocean, not a small pond.”