China hits back at US crackdown against tech industries

Illustration: Chen Xia/Global Times

Chinese ministers on Friday hit back at the US crackdown against Chinese tech industries, vowing that the country will take all necessary measures to safeguard its own rights and interests.

The US' latest reported move to levy more tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and other green exports is "adding one mistake to another," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a routine press briefing on Friday, as the US side has not only failed to correct its previous erroneous practices, but continued to politicize economic and trade issues, as well as abusing the so-called Section 301 tariff review process to justify tariff hikes.

Lin pointed out that the Section 301 tariffs imposed by the former US administration were declared by the WTO to have been in violation of its rules, severely disrupting the normal economic and trade exchanges between China and the US. "We urge the US to follow WTO rules, lift all additional tariffs on China and not impose new ones. China will take all necessary measures to defend its rights and interests," Lin said.

China has also criticized US restrictions on the development of Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) and other tech industries.

Reuters reported recently that the US government is considering a new regulatory push to restrict exports of proprietary or closed-source AI models. This is apparently due to concerns that "US adversaries could use the models… to wage aggressive cyber-attacks or even create potent biological weapons."

At the press briefing, Lin pointed out that politicizing economic, trade, and technology issues and an aggressive push for decoupling do not align with the interests of any party involved, including the US.

"The US should honor its commitments of not seeking decoupling from China and not holding back China's development," Lin said, calling on Washington to stop pursuing protectionism, end the technological blockade against China, and stop disrupting the international trade order.

With regard to more Chinese companies being added to a US trade entity list, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Friday that China opposes abuse of export control tools including the entity list to crack down on Chinese companies.

"For a long time, the US side has generalized the concept of national security and abused export control measures to suppress the development of enterprises from other countries. Those actions have seriously harmed the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises, undermined the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains, and hindered the recovery and development of the world economy," MOFCOM said.

MOFCOM also criticized a military aid package Biden signed in April as a typical kind of unilateral bullying under the guise of so-called "national security." The package contains multiple negative terms targeting China.

"The deal also arbitrarily interferes with China's normal economic and trade exchanges with other countries, and it threatens to implement unilateral sanctions through 'long-arm jurisdiction.' The Chinese side strongly objects to this," MOFCOM said.