US claims China playing 'blame game' in trade war

The US has accused China of playing the "blame game” by misrepresenting why trade talks between the two powers had broken down, leading Washington to go ahead and raise tariffs on Chinese exports as it had threatened to do at the end of 2018.

Responding to the Chinese government's allegations on Sunday that American officials had backtracked on three occasions over the course of the talks, overnight the US administration also accused China of "backpedalling" on previously agreed elements of the trade talks.

In its White Paper released at the weekend, China had said that in order to reach a deal "the US should remove all additional tariffs imposed on Chinese exports."

"One side should not cross the other's 'red lines'. The right to development cannot be sacrificed, still the less can sovereignty be undermined."

On Tuesday, China's Ministry of Commerce did say that the trade conflict with the US will ultimately need to be resolved through further talks but reiterated some of the points that it had made over the weekend.

“The Chinese side always believes that the differences and frictions between the two sides in the economic and trade field will ultimately need to be resolved through dialogue and consultation,” a spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Consultations are principled and need to be based on mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit...It is hoped that the US will abandon its wrong practices and work in tandem with the Chinese side. In the spirit of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, we will control differences and strengthen cooperation to jointly safeguard the healthy and stable development of China-US economic and trade relations,” the statement continued.

Nevertheless, the ministry reiterated some of the claims made on Sunday. "The US side accused China of ‘reversing the car’ during the consultations, which is completely nonsense. In the course of the consultation, it is the usual practice of trade negotiations to propose amendments and make adjustments to the text content and related expressions."

In early May, Washington had made good on its threat to raise tariffs on $200bbn-worth of Chinese goods further, arguing that Beijing was backtracking on some of the elements of the trade deal that had already been agreed.

"Our negotiating positions have been consistent throughout these talks, and China backpedalled on important elements of what the parties had agreed to," the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said in a statement.

The US said it was "disappointed" that the Chinese had chosen in recent public statements "to pursue a blame game misrepresenting the nature and history of trade negotiations between the two countries."

"Our insistence on detailed and enforceable commitments from the Chinese in no way constitutes a threat to Chinese sovereignty," the USTR said.

One of the major hurdles in talks was China's tech industry. Trump had recently announced that tech giant Huawei would be blacklisted and that it could no longer trade with US companies without express approval from the American government.

Somewhat ironically, facing the threat of losing access to American technology, a potentially crippling blow, some observers believed that Huawei and Chinese tech companies more generally might be forced to create indigenous alternatives to US chips.

It might take China up to a decade to successfully develop its own semiconductor industry, but that could ultimately hurt American companies, which had thus far reaped big profits in the Asian country.