BEIJING: China’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that U.S. threats to raise tariffs in response to Beijing’s control measures on rare earths and related items were not the right way to engage, urging Washington to correct its mistakes.
The U.S. has recently kept introducing a series of restrictions and sanctions against China, seriously undermining China’s interests, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a press conference.
China firmly opposes such actions, he added.
Lin called on the U.S. to address both sides’ concerns through dialogue based on equality, respect, and mutual benefit; properly manage differences; and safeguard the stable, healthy, and sustainable development of China-U.S. relations.
If the U.S. insists on going its own way, China will resolutely take corresponding measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests, Lin said.
He said that China’s announcement of export control measures on rare earths and related items is a legitimate action by the Chinese government to refine its export control system in accordance with laws and regulations. In the context of turmoil and frequent military conflicts in the world, China has taken note of the important uses of medium and heavy rare earths and related items in the military field, he added.
He said China, as a responsible major country, employs export controls on related items according to the law, in order to better defend world peace and regional stability, and to fulfill non-proliferation and other international obligations.
He said China’s export controls are not export bans. Licenses will be granted for eligible applications. Before the measures were announced, China had already notified relevant countries and regions through bilateral export control dialogue mechanisms, he added.
He said China stands ready to work with the rest of the world to step up export control dialogue and exchange, so as to better safeguard the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains.
“As a responsible major country, China always firmly safeguards its national security and international common security, always takes a just and reasonable principled position and implements export control measures in a prudential and moderate manner. China had made thorough assessment of the measures’ possible impact on industrial and supply chains in advance and is certain that related impact is very limited. Before announcing the measures, China had notified relevant countries and regions through bilateral export control dialogue mechanisms,” he added.
He said the Chinese government will conduct reviews in accordance with laws and regulations, grant licenses to eligible applications, as well as actively considering the applicability of facilitation measures such as general licenses and license exemptions to effectively promote legitimate trade.
“I want to emphasize that China’s export controls are not export bans. All applications of compliant export for civil use can get approval, so that relevant businesses have no need to worry. The Chinese government will work with all countries as always, to firmly safeguard world peace and stability in neighboring regions, and jointly maintain the stability of global industrial and supply chains,” he added.
He said China has taken note of the situation. On October 9, China released export control measures on rare earths and related items, which are normal actions taken by the Chinese government in accordance with laws and regulations to refine its own export control system, he said and added that as a responsible major country, China always firmly safeguards its national security and international common security, always takes a just and reasonable principled position and implements export control measures in a prudential and moderate manner. He said the U.S. remarks reflect textbook “double standard”.
“For a long time, the U.S. has been overstretching the concept of national security, abusing export control, taking discriminatory actions against China, and imposing unilateral long-arm jurisdiction measures on various products including semiconductor equipment and chips. The U.S. Commerce Control List (CCL) covers over 3000 items, whereas China’s Export Control List of Dual-use Items only cover about 900. The U.S. has long imposed the ‘de minimis’ rule for export controls, with a lowest threshold of 0%. These measures of U.S. side have seriously harmed the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of companies, severely disrupted the international economic and trade order, and gravely undermined the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains,” he asserted.
Lin Jian said since the China-U.S. economic and trade talks in Madrid in September, the U.S., in just 20 days, has introduced a string of new restrictive measures targeting China. He said it has put multiple Chinese entities on the Entity List and Special Designated National List; arbitrarily expanded the scope of control over businesses with the Affiliates Rule that affects thousands of Chinese companies; and persisted with the implementation of Section 301 measures targeting China’s maritime, logistics and shipbuilding industries in disregard of China’s concerns and goodwill.
“The U.S. actions have severely harmed China’s interests and undermined the atmosphere of bilateral economic and trade talks, and China is resolutely opposed to them. Willful threats of high tariffs are not the right way to get along with China. China’s position on the trade war is consistent: we do not want it, but we are not afraid of it. China urges the U.S. to promptly correct its wrong practices, adhere to the important consensuses of the phone calls between the two heads of state, protect the hard-won outcomes of consultations, continue to use the China-U.S.,” he added.
