"China has taken advantage of the United States for many, many years and those days are over,\u201d the vice president said.<\/b>
\nThis 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\u2019s 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.
\u201cUnilateralism and protectionism will not solve problems but add uncertainty to the world economy,\u201d he said. \u201cHistory has shown that confrontation, whether in the form of a cold war, a hot war or a trade war, produces no winners.\u201d
When it was his turn to take to the podium, Pence was equally fervent but far more direct in his criticism.
\u201cWe 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,\u201d he said.
He then leveled a number of accusations at Beijing, including its insistence on forced technology transfers and intellectual property theft.
\u201cThe U. S. will not change course until China changes its ways,\u201d 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\u2019s speech, both of which were delivered from a conference room on a cruise ship moored in Port Moresby harbour.
Despite his hard line, Pence said Washington \u201cbelieved progress could be made\u201d when Trump and Xi meet in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires at the end of the month on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit. The talks will be the first between the two leaders since the trade war began.
Aside from airing their grievances on trade, Xi and Pence were equally keen to promote their nations\u2019 respective plans for regional cooperation, respectively the \u201cBelt and Road Initiative\u201d and Indo-Pacific strategy.
\u201cThe belt and road [plan] is an open platform for cooperation. [It is] neither designed to serve any hidden political agendas nor to target anyone,\u201d Xi said.
\u201cIt does not cause debt traps, as some want to label it, [but] is a transparent project that brings common development to the world.\u201d
Xi launched the trillion-dollar program in 2013 as a way to boost connectivity between China and the Eurasian land mass.
Pence, however, made a thinly veiled attack of China\u2019s controversial overseas infrastructure building spree.
\u201cAs we are all aware, some are offering infrastructure loans to governments across the Indo-Pacific and around the world,\u201d he said. \u201cYet the terms of those loans are often vague at best, projects they support are often unsustainable\u2026 too often they come with strings attached.\u201d
While he made no specific references to China, Pence urged governments in Asia to consider Washington\u2019s Indo-Pacific Strategy, which is backed by Australia and Japan, as a preferable alternative to the belt and road plan.
\u201cKnow that the U. S. offers a better option,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t drown our partners in a sea of debt, we don\u2019t coerce, or compromise your independence\u2026 We don\u2019t offer a constricting belt or a one way road.\u201d
On the issue of China\u2019s growing militarization of the disputed South China Sea, Pence said the U. S. would partner Australia on the upgrading of the Lombrum naval base on the Pacific nation\u2019s Manus island.
Infrastructure development, including roads, railways, ports, pipelines and airports, would be the priority of the Indo-Pacific Strategy, Pence said, adding that the U. S. would adopt a \u201cprincipled approach that will stand in contrast to some other nations\u201d.
The tension between the two nations was also evident at a photo call for the leaders of the 21 Apec member nations on Saturday afternoon. While Xi stood beside Papua New Guinean President Peter O\u2019Neill, Pence was noticeably absent from the shot.
Meanwhile, Taiwan\u2019s foreign ministry reported that the vice president met the self-ruled island\u2019s envoy to Apec, Morris Chang, and discussed ways to \u201cboost inclusive growth and shape the digital future\u201d.
Pence described his meeting with Chang as being \u201cabout economics\u201d. \u201cThey were strong supporters of TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership] and made a case for being considered for a free-trade agreement. And I assured them we would carry back that ask,\u201d he said.
In contrast, there were no reports of meetings between Chinese and American officials at the event.
Xi is currently on a seven-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. After leaving Papua New Guinea he will travel to Brunei and the Philippines for state visits, and attend the G20 summit from November 30 to December 1 in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n