China emerged with wins in this week’s trade talks, with the U.S. shelving new tariffs against Beijing while leaving many demands to be worked out later in return for an assurance of increased agriculture purchases. The two countries agreed on October 11 to cement a trade agreement with US President Trump saying the U.S. would call off planned tariff increases on Chinese goods next week while Beijing would buy $40 billion to $50 billion worth of American agricultural products. The next round would discuss tougher issues which US alleges but Beijing denies, such as forced transfers of U.S. technology to its economic rival. While the US media widely reported on the 37-minute White House press conference, Chinese state-run media Xinhua (October 12) only reported the talks in three short sentences. It said “Both parties have made substantial progress in the fields of agriculture, intellectual property protection, exchange rates, financial services, expanding trade cooperation, technology transfer, and settling disputes.” The report didn’t mention that the United States and China had reached a partial trade deal, only noting that “both parties discussed the follow-up arrangements, and agreed to work together in the direction of reaching a final agreement.” People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), reported on the trade talks on October 13, using the same wording as Xinhua.
|
