China stays rational to cope with external uncertainties
By Zhong Sheng
On Sept. 11, the
Customs
Tariff Commission of China’s State Council announced the first group
of US imports for exclusion from the initial round of additional tariffs.
Sixteen types of
US products will be excluded from the first round of additional Chinese tariffs
with effect from Sept. 17, 2019, and affected import enterprises are allowed to
apply for refunds of collected duties.
It is a rational
decision eying the overall picture.
There is no
winner in a trade war. China does not want a trade war, but it is not afraid of
one and it will fight one if necessary. China’s position on this has never
changed. The country’s countermeasures are a just act responding to the US who
unilaterally launched and continuously escalated the economic and trade
frictions.
The exemption
lists reflect China’s rationality and restraint it has always exercised in
dealing with the China-US trade disputes. All the countermeasures taken by the
Chinese side are not for the sake of confrontation, and
the tariff increase is not aiming at earning more tariffs, either.
Since China
started the tariff exclusion process for US imports on a trial basis on
May 13, relevant Chinese departments have
carefully examined eligible applications and taken on board related
suggestions.
Will the
additional tariffs make it difficult for enterprises to find substitutes? Will
they cause negative structural impacts on relevant industries? Will they lower
the life quality of Chinese citizens? These questions have all been taken into
consideration, which demonstrates the responsibility the Chinese government is
fulfilling for its own people and enterprises in China.
However, some
people in the US distorted the exemption lists unveiled by China, saying the
lists are a signal that China is not able to take the impacts of the trade
friction.
What these
people said is one-sided and is intended to make hypes. Chinese economy is
resilient and China is not afraid of any external challenge. China has the only
complete industrial chain in the world, and this chain cannot be easily
destroyed by the US tariff rise. In the short term, the US tariffs will only
highlight the value of China in the global industrial chain.
According to a
survey by US-China Business Council, 87 percent of interviewed US enterprises
had no plans to leave China. Rhodium Group statistics showed that
US enterprises invested $6.8 billion in China in the first half of 2019, which
is 1.5% more than in the same periods of the previous two years.
China has always
been staying lucid in doing its own things well. The measures it has taken to continuously
take off external pressure, such as promoting high-quality development,
expanding opening-up and improving business environment, have been lauded by
the world.
Tim Stratford,
chairman of American Chamber of Commerce in China
(AmCham China), said recently that the confidence of AmCham China's members in
opening up market by the Chinese government is at a historic level, and over
half of its members still consider China as one of their top three investment
destinations worldwide.
The increasingly strong appeals shown by
the Chinese market well responded to the unreal “decoupling”
illusions of some US politicians.
Over the past
more than a year of trade frictions, China has spared no
effort to inject impetus into sustained and healthy economic development
and to improve the life quality of its people. Facts once again prove that
China is making the optimal choice by exerting rationality, doing its own
things well and maintaining its own stability when facing various external
uncertainties.
(Zhong Sheng is
a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on foreign
policy.)
China stays rational to cope with external uncertainties
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