"China has taken advantage of the United States for many, many years and those days are over,” the vice president said.
This story is being published by POLITICO as part of a content partnership with the South China Morning Post. It originally appeared on scmp.com on Nov. 8,2018.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Vice President Mike Pence traded barbs at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Papua New Guinea on Saturday, with each laying the blame for the trade war and growing geopolitical rivalry at the other’s doorstep, while also seeking to sell their vision of a regional development strategy.
In a speech lasting almost 40 minutes, Xi urged the business and political leaders gathered in Port Moresby to uphold free trade and promote a multilateral system.
“Unilateralism and protectionism will not solve problems but add uncertainty to the world economy,” he said. “History has shown that confrontation, whether in the form of a cold war, a hot war or a trade war, produces no winners.”
When it was his turn to take to the podium, Pence was equally fervent but far more direct in his criticism.
“We have great respect for President Xi and China, but as we all know, China has taken advantage of the United States for many, many years and those days are over,” he said.
He then leveled a number of accusations at Beijing, including its insistence on forced technology transfers and intellectual property theft.
“The U. S. will not change course until China changes its ways,” Pence said, adding that there was still room for the White House to introduce new tariffs on Chinese goods.
Since July, Washington has imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports, while Beijing has slapped similar duties on $110 billion worth of goods it imports from the US. In September, President Donald Trump threatened to extend the tariffs to all of the products it imports from China.
Neither Xi nor Pence listened to the other’s speech, both of which were delivered from a conference room on a cruise ship moored in Port Moresby harbour.
