Mike Pompeo denounces China's "bad behavior" and defends US tariffs

US-China relations have covered issues ranging from trade to US sanctions on Chinese telecom giant Huawei, Taiwan, as well as the busy South China Sea Route.

BANGKOK:

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday denounced China's "decades of reprehensible behavior" that have hindered free trade, presenting a case before a Southeast Asian forum for the escalation of the trade war between Washington and Beijing.

Pompeo's statements come after President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he would impose a 10% tariff on the remaining $ 300 billion of Chinese imports from September 1, abruptly ending a truce in a year-long trade dispute between the world's two largest economies.

"We want free and fair trade, not trade that undermines competition," Pompeo told a regional youth leadership program in the Thai capital, Bangkok, where he is participating in a larger meeting of Southeast Asian countries with global powers.

US criticism of China was a recurring theme at the Bangkok forum.

"For decades, China has benefited from trade ... It's time for this to end. President Trump said that we were going to solve this problem. And solving this problem requires determination, and that's what you saw this morning," said Pompeo on Friday. .

Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi told reporters separately in Bangkok that the new tariffs were not a proper or constructive way to resolve the trade dispute between the two countries.

Asked about the global economic disruption resulting from the US-China dispute, Pompeo replied: "decades of China's bad behavior have had negative implications."

The proposed new tariffs on Chinese products could further disrupt global supply chains. The US and Chinese negotiators ended a brief round of trade negotiations in Shanghai on Wednesday with little sign of progress and agreed to meet again in September.

Global equities again battled Friday with investors rushing into safe-haven assets.

Pompeo-who had assured his Southeast Asian partners a day earlier that Washington would not force them to choose sides between the US and China-used his speech on Friday to present American investment as a more benign option.

"Our investments do not serve a government, and our investments here do not serve a political party, or frankly the imperial ambitions of a country," he said.

"We don't fund bridges to fill loyalty gaps," he said, adding, "ask yourself: Do you really encourage self-sufficiency, not dependency, investors trying to meet the needs of their consumers, or those who are trapped? are you in debt? "

His comments seemed to be a blow to China's gigantic Belt and Roads initiative, which aims to strengthen economic and trade ties and build a modern version of the Silk Road to link China to Asia, Europe and beyond through large-scale infrastructure projects.

However, some countries have opposed the fear that opaque financial arrangements could lead to unsustainable debt and that it is more a matter of promoting China's influence than of promoting development.

US-China relations have been strained in areas ranging from trade to US sanctions on Chinese telecom giant Huawei, Taiwan, and the busy South China Sea communications channel.

Pompeo and Wang first had a conciliatory tone when they met in person in Bangkok on Thursday for the first time this year.
However, Pompeo quickly picked up his criticism, citing Chinese "coercion" of neighbors in maritime clashes in the controversial South China Sea, and said that the construction of a dam upstream from Mekong on the Mekong River was harming Southeast Asian countries dependent on the waterway.