On November 21, 2018, the United States renewed its accusations that China was still engaging in unfair trade practices and stealing American technology, even as the trade war between the two countries intensified.
The latest warning came from the Office of US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, which said China had not fixed the conduct highlighted in a March 2018 Section 301 report. Lighthizer said, “This update shows that China has not fundamentally altered its unfair, unreasonable, and market-distorting practices that were the subject of the March 2018 report on our Section 301 investigation.”
American officials have long accused Beijing of pursuing dominance in advanced industries such as robotics and renewable energy through theft of intellectual property, pressure on US firms operating in China, state-backed acquisitions, hacking, industrial espionage, heavy subsidies and dumping. China has denied the allegations.
The report said China “indeed appears to have taken further unreasonable actions in recent months.” It also cited civilian cybersecurity firms, which said Chinese hacking activity had continued and that state-linked actors were targeting cloud computing, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, biomedicines, civilian space, alternative energy, robotics, rail, agricultural machinery and high-end medical devices.
In October 2018, the US Justice Department announced charges against Chinese intelligence officers and agents accused of overseeing cyber-theft of intellectual property and confidential information from aerospace and high-tech companies.
The dispute was also widening beyond Washington and Beijing. Brussels and Tokyo had joined the US in criticizing Chinese trade practices, and the three economies issued a joint statement on the matter in September 2018.
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were due to discuss trade later that month at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. Trump had already imposed tariffs on more than USD250 billion in Chinese imports, while China had responded with counter-tariffs on more than USD100 billion in US goods.
Trump also repeated his threat to impose tariffs on all Chinese imports if Beijing did not meet his demands. US duty rates on USD200 billion in Chinese goods were set to rise to 25 percent in January if no agreement was reached.
Markets were watching the standoff closely. US stocks fell during the week as worries about the US-China rift returned after the weekend’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which ended without a group communique for the first time in APEC history.
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