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No winners in trade wars, states Chinese envoy, as U.S. confrontation looms

There are no winners in tariff or trade wars, nor in wars over science and technology or industry, stated China's top envoy to the United States, as Donald Trump's governmental election win raised the spectre of another bruising confrontation with China.

Xie Feng, China's ambassador to the United States, stated differences between the two nations should be the driving force for exchanges and shared knowing instead of a reason for rejection and fight, which the successes of each were chances for the other.

Speaking at a dinner hosted by the U.S.-China Company Council in Shanghai on Thursday, Xie did not straight address the U.S. election or Trump, who formerly loaded tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese products before agreeing to a truce in January 2020.

In 2019, China's economy grew a modified 6.0%, the weakest in nearly 30 years, weighed down by trade war with the U.S. The economy has actually even more cooled given that, with the government targeting a modest expansion of around 5.0% in 2024, putting it on the back foot if there are fresh trade frictions after Trump takes workplace in January.

The Republican has promised to adopt blanket 60% tariffs on U.S. imports of Chinese items compared to the 7.5% to 25%. imposed in his very first term.

Advising the United States of the presence of U.S. companies, Xie stated about 60% of the new shops opened by. McDonald's Corp in the past year remained in China, while. Shanghai is the only significant city worldwide with more than. 1,000 Starbucks coffee shops.

The more success stories of equally advantageous. cooperation, the better, Xie said. China and the United States can achieve numerous fantastic and great. things through cooperation, and the list of cooperation should. be extended longer and longer.

However any effort to consist of or reduce China would only. strike a wall, Xie said.

Analysts stated China would be ready to eliminate back if a new. trade war were to appear.

Even in the unlikely event that we saw an abrupt thaw in. U.S.-China ties, Beijing will continue to prioritise. self-sufficiency and economic security, stated Joe Mazur, senior. analyst at Beijing-based consultancy Trivium China.

If (tariffs) were to take place, I believe we would start to see. some quite aggressive retaliation from the Chinese side. The. calculus here would likely be that playing nice actually didn't. get China anywhere which striking back difficult might trigger the. U.S. to think twice about pressuring China economically.

Julian Evans-Pritchard, Head of China Economics at Capital. Economics, composed in a note on Thursday: We approximate that the. direct impact of even a 60% U.S. tariff on goods from China. would be well under 1% of China's GDP..

(source: Reuters)