China pushes anti-‘bullying’ agenda amid tensions with US

BEIJING – China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned Global South nations that “unilateral bullying” was hurting a rules-based world, as Beijing kept up the diplomatic pressure on US President Donald Trump to roll back his punitive trade tariffs.

Power politics and unilateral bullying were undermining international rules and creating divisions and confrontations, Mr Wang told a roundtable of developing-country diplomats and scholars, according to a statement released by China’s Foreign Ministry on April 18.

In a written speech delivered to the event on April 17, he also said the world was at a critical crossroads, and urged countries to oppose “unilateral protectionism”.

He did not name the US directly in his comments.

Mr Trump on April 2

announced “reciprocal” tariffs on many US trading partners,

with China taking the biggest blow. While levies on many countries have since been postponed for 90 days, Mr Trump did not relent on the 145 per cent tariffs he added on Chinese imports, prompting Beijing to punch back with duties on US goods.

China has also taken the lead in lobbying other countries to resist Mr Trump’s tariffs, with President Xi Jinping this week on a visit to South-east Asia personally urging Vietnam and Cambodia, hit with US tariffs of 46 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively,

to oppose “unilateral bullying”.

Next week, China is planning an informal United Nations Security Council meeting to accuse the US, the world's biggest economy, of bullying.

A note inviting all 193 UN member states to attend the April 23 meeting in New York specifically criticises the United States for imposing tariffs.

Some countries, such as Japan, have already started to reach out to Washington to seek a reprieve over the tariffs.

But China remains adamant that the US should show respect before any talks can take place.

Mr Trump on April 17

signalled a potential end to the tit-for-tat tariff hikes

between the US and China, saying “at a certain point” people would not want to buy things.

“So, I may not want to go higher or I may not want to even go up to that level. I may want to go to less because you know you want people to buy and, at a certain point, people aren’t gonna buy,” he said. REUTERS