BEIJING (Reuters) – There are no winners in tariff or trade wars, nor in wars over science and technology or industry, China’s ambassador to the United States said after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election.
Ambassador Xie Feng encouraged U.S. companies to invest and operate in China, and said he was looking forward to strengthening dialogue and cooperation on global challenges such as climate change, artificial intelligence, in a speech at a U.S.-China Business Council dinner seen on the embassy website.
He did not directly address Trump nor the U.S. election.
“China and the United States can achieve many great and good things through cooperation, and the list of cooperation should be stretched longer and longer,” he said.
Trump’s return could revive issues from his first presidency, when he initiated a bruising trade war with the world’s second-largest economy in 2018, though striking a truce just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in January 2020.
The Republican has vowed to adopt blanket 60% tariffs on U.S. imports of Chinese goods compared with the 7.5% to 25% levied in his first term poses major growth risks for China.
Xie noted that fast food chain McDonald’s in China has added the most new stores in the past year, accounting for about 60% of its stores worldwide, while Shanghai is the only major city globally to boast more than 1,000 Starbucks’ cafes.
“The more success stories of mutually beneficial cooperation, the better,” Xie said.
Xie also said differences between the two nations should be the driving force for exchanges and mutual learning, rather than “an excuse for rejection and confrontation”, calling successes of each country opportunities to each other.
(Reporting by Liz Lee and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Kim Coghill)