May 30 (UPI) — Chinese officials said Thursday the Trump administration’s efforts in the two nations’ ongoing trade dispute amounts to “economic terrorism.”
Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Hanhui leveled the remarks at U.S. officials — an assessment foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang agreed with.
“I could not agree more with Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Hanhui and don’t see anything hard to comprehend,” Lu said.
“The U.S. unilateralism and bullying practices in the international arena, including in economic and trade relations with other countries, show clearly that it is undermining the existing international rules. … It has indeed inflicted serious harm on other countries.”
The Communist Party-run People’s Daily said in a commentary Thursday U.S. “greed” and its failing to honor past trade agreements hurts Washington’s reputation among the international community.
“The credibility of the U.S. is being gnawed away by the bad faith of some Washington politicians, which has been broadly perceived by people around the world,” it said. “If these politicians continue acting this way, it won’t be long before the U.S. is trapped in grave peril.”
The trade conflict has been going for a year and has heightened tensions recently with new tariffs on both sides. Trade negotiations have also broken down.
Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif used similar “economic terrorism” language when describing U.S. sanctions this week.
