‘America First’ goes against world common aspiration for peace and development |17 June 2019
By Chinese Ambassador to Seychelles H.E. GUO Wei
From June 24-25, the Coordinators' Meeting on the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation will be held in Beijing. The meeting aims to lead a high quality and sustainable development of China-Africa cooperation through reviewing the early harvests of last year’s Beijing summit.
Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac)
In 2018, China's trade with Africa surged 20 percent year on year to US $204.2 billion. China has remained Africa's largest trading partner for 10 consecutive years. More than 3,700 Chinese enterprises have been set up in Africa by the end of 2018, with combined direct investment over US $46 billion.
A large number of major infrastructure cooperation projects have contributed to regional interconnection and development in Africa. China-Africa cooperation is results-oriented, efficient and fruitful. The two sides have been working together to uphold multilateralism and build an even stronger China-Africa community with a shared future.
China's diplomacy focuses on building a community with a shared future for mankind, which is advocated by Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s diplomatic thought. China adheres to the path of peaceful development based on mutual respect and mutual benefit. As a responsible big country, China has always been committed to promoting common prosperity and progress of all countries while developing itself.
However, since the new United States of America (USA) administration took office in 2017, it has adopted the ‘America First’ policy and provoked frequent economic and trade friction with its major trading partners. In recent months, the USA has been escalating the trade war with China by imposing additional tariffs and other measures, which have aroused great concern of the international community.
Trade war between the world’s two largest economies not only harms the interests of both countries, but also impedes global development. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has marked down its projection of world economic growth for 2019 to 3.3 percent from the 2018 estimate of 3.6 percent, suggesting that economic and trade friction could further depress global economic growth and weaken already anemic investment. The US trade protection measures pose a serious challenge to global economic recovery and a major threat to the trend of economic globalisation.
China has never thought of starting a trade war with any country. It is the USA that forced China into a trade war. China is open to negotiation, but will also fight to the end if needed. China has been consistent and clear on its position that it hopes to resolve issues through dialogue rather than tariff measures. Recently, a white paper titled ‘China’s Position on the China-US Economic and Trade Consultations’ was issued by the Chinese government for the world to have a better understanding on this issue.
Ironically, the trade war has not “made America great again”. A joint report by the US Chamber of Commerce and the Rhodium Group in March 2019 showed that, under the impact of China-US economic and trade friction, US GDP in 2019 and the next four years could decrease by US $64-91 billion per year. According to a research report in February 2019 by Trade Partnership, an American think-tank, if the US imposes 25 percent additional tariffs on all imported Chinese goods, US GDP will decrease by 1.01 percent, with 2.16 million job losses and an additional annual burden of US $2,294 on a family of four. Media reports more than 600 companies and industry trade associations wrote to the White House urging President Donald Trump to end the ongoing trade war with China.
“America Frist” is fundamentally against economic globalisation and the world common aspiration for peace and development. Despite the profound and complicated changes of the global landscape, China will continue to actively promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind and to make greater contribution to world peace and development.