Two weeks after U. S. President Donald Trump was inaugurated, promising to pursue an \u201cAmerica First\u201d approach to the United States\u2019 economic relations with the world, China may finally be coming around to the reality that it\u2019ll have to talk to the United States about trade concerns.
So far, China has avoided directly addressing Donald Trump\u2019s repeated accusations that Beijing is deliberately weakening its currency to benefit its exporters (it is, in fact, doing the opposite, fearing capital flight) and engaging in manipulative trade practices. The latter accusation isn\u2019t entirely new to Trump; for instance, the Obama administration\u2019s U. S. trade representative criticized China for a range of protectionist practices in the 2016 U. S. National Trade Estimate report.
China\u2019s go-to messaging when asked about the Trump administration\u2019s comments on trade so far has been to emphasize \u201cwin-win\u201d possibilities. For instance, in the first press conference following Trump\u2019s inauguration, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying cautioned that trade was \u201cmutually beneficial in nature,\u201d and that \u201ctrade wars or confrontation will produce no winner, but only harm the interests of both and all parties.\u201d
This language echoed Chinese President Xi Jinping\u2019s own defense of trade between nations at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. There, Xi had said that \u201cNo one will emerge as a winner in a trade war.\u201d Xi, of course, did not acknowledge any of the common criticisms of Chinese trade practices directly.
On Friday , in the first press conference after the Chinese Lunar New Year break, we may have seen the first sign that China is open to talking with the United States about trade. When asked about contacts between the United States and China in the Trump administration\u2019s first two weeks in office, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang noted that \u201cthat China and the U. S. are in close contact right now.\u201d He went on to mention that \u201cthe differences that China and the U. S. are experiencing in trade can be resolved through friendly consultations.\u201d
This last statement represents the first hint by any Chinese official that Beijing will entertain the idea of one-on-one talks with the Trump administration on trade. During the transition, Chinese officials had not commented on how they would address the new U. S. administration\u2019s deep skepticism of China. Though China uses the term \u201cfriendly consultations\u201d to interchangeably refer to both high-level and low-level diplomatic contact \u2014 the term was a go-to for China\u2019s preferred bilateral diplomatic approach on the South China Sea disputes, for example \u2014 Lu\u2019s comment on Friday appears to be the first sign that we can expect some form of bilateral exchange between China and the United States.
A more credible signal would be a statement from a senior official on the Chinese State Council, which ultimately exercises authority over the implementation of Chinese economic policy. If talks on this issue are to proceed between the United States and China this year before China\u2019s 19th Party Congress, which is expected to result in important changes in leadership in Beijing, expect to see State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Premier Li Keqiang involved down the line.<\/p>\n