US claims of 'economic aggression' reflect Cold War mentality

BEIJING - A US report calling China's development "economic aggression" is not credible, and if it tells us anything real, it is that the world's largest economy is mired in a Cold War mentality.

The White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy issued a report on June 19, using loose facts and sharp language to accuse China of threatening the technology and intellectual property of the United States and the world with "economic aggression."

China's industrial modernization, economic growth, and ascendance up the global value chain are not "aggressive." They instead offer abundant opportunities and returns for global investors.

The report fails to give concrete facts and figures to support its claim about China's "economic aggression." For example, what it calls China's "wide range of coercive and intrusive regulatory gambits" are actually normal practices for market access and regulation in any market economy. The claims are not only confusing, but unprofessional.

Meanwhile, many of the report's conclusions are based on guesswork, with speculative language, relying on words such as "likely" and "may," and overall it lacks accuracy.

As a country that values peace, China, especially in modern history, has never been aggressive.

The United States, on the contrary, has been hurting other countries' interests and damaging global industrial chains by abusing tariffs based on domestic laws.

Since January, the United States has imposed additional tariffs on photovoltaic, steel and aluminium products and has similar tariff plans for cars and auto parts, which have drawn opposition from China, India, the European Union, Canada and many other World Trade Organization members.

Undeniably, the United States has become the biggest saboteur to the international rules as well as the major challenger of economic globalization and free trade. The report is just proof of the country's unilateralism and Cold War mentality.

The logic reflected by the US report goes against the times, which call for peace, cooperation, opening-up and integration. History will show that a Cold War mentality does not work.