U.S. urged to correct its non-market practices: FM spokesperson

BEIJING, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The United States should correct its economic coercion, unilateral sanctions, long-arm jurisdiction, and other non-market practices, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said here Monday.

According to reports, on June 9, the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan jointly released a statement, emphasizing their concern that trade-related economic coercion and non-market-oriented policies and practices threaten the multilateral trading system and harm relations between countries.

They also expressed concern about pervasive subsidization, anticompetitive practices by state-owned enterprises, forced technology transfer, and government interference with corporate decision-making. The six countries also said that they are seriously concerned about the use of forced labor, including state-sponsored forced labor, in global supply chains.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a daily news briefing that the statement is made by the United States together with its Five Eyes allies and Japan, but every sentence in it reads like a description of the United States itself.

"The U.S. CHIPS and Science Act prohibits companies that receive federal funding from expanding advanced semiconductor production capacity in China for a decade. It also cajoles and coerces U.S. allies into restricting export of semiconductors to China. Isn't this typical economic coercion?" he said.

Wang said that the United States has overstretched the concept of national security and abused state power to suppress companies like Huawei and TikTok. "Isn't this clearly a non-market practice?"

For many years running, the United States has been the only one impeding the appointment of new judges to the WTO's Appellate Body, thus paralyzing the dispute settlement mechanism, Wang said, adding that the United States also refuses to comply with WTO rulings in effect.

"Isn't this the biggest threat to the multilateral trade system?" said the spokesperson.

"The United States has adopted the Inflation Reduction Act, resorted to discriminatory subsidies, and triggered a subsidy race. Isn't this a textbook example of market-distorting illegal subsidies?" Wang said.

As to forced labor, the spokesperson said that it is a persistent problem in the United States as old as the country itself, and even today, more than 500,000 people in the United States still live under the yoke of modern slavery and forced labor.

As the United States attempts to project its deplorable image onto others, the world gets a chance to see clearly what the United States really is -- a country that tramples on market economy principles and international trade rules, he said.

"We suggest Britain and the other countries use this statement as a checklist and call on the United States to correct its economic coercion, unilateral sanctions, long-arm jurisdiction, and other non-market practices," said Wang.