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Wang Qishan says China ready to talk trade with Trump, warns against rising populism

SINGAPORE - A top deputy to Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing remained ready to discuss a trade solution with the United States, but cautioned that the country wouldn’t again be “bullied and oppressed” by foreign powers. Vice President Wang Qishan told Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum in Singapore that trade was still the “anchor and propeller of China-US relations” but prefaced his support for talks with a warning about the dangers of “right-leaning populism” and “unilateralism.”

Mr Wang, who was making his third overseas trip since assuming the government’s No. 2 post in March, also used the speech in Singapore on Tuesday to express concerns about growing populist sentiment.

Mr Wang, who was making his third overseas trip since assuming the government’s No. 2 post in March, also used the speech in Singapore on Tuesday to express concerns about growing populist sentiment.

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SINGAPORE - A top deputy to Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing remained ready to discuss a trade solution with the United States, but cautioned that the country wouldn’t again be “bullied and oppressed” by foreign powers.

Vice President Wang Qishan - one of China’s best-known economic reformers - told Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum in Singapore that trade was still the “anchor and propeller of China-US relations.”

Mr Wang prefaced his support for talks - a refrain Chinese leaders have repeated for months - with a warning about the dangers of “right-leaning populism” and “unilateralism.”

“The Chinese side is ready to have discussions with the US on issues of mutual concern and work for a solution on trade acceptable to both sides,” Mr Wang told the crowd of more than 400 business and political leaders Tuesday (Nov 6).

“China will stay calm and sober-minded and embrace greater openness to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results,” he added.

"The world today faces many major problems that require close co-operation between China and the United States. Negativity and anger are not the way to address the problems that have emerged from globalisation, nor will barriers and disputes help solve one's own problems; instead, they will only exacerbate global market turbulence." 

Still, Mr Wang - a long-time friend of President Xi - said that China had been “bullied and oppressed by imperialist powers” and must “blaze its own trail.”

"To understand the history of [China] in the past 70 years, one has to go back to the year 1840 when China was bullied and oppressed by imperialist powers," he said.

"Since then, the unyielding Chinese people have been fighting to once again stand on their feet and achieve prosperity and strength."

Mr Wang was speaking the day after Mr Xi pledged at a Shanghai trade expo to further open his country’s markets, while taking a few veiled swipes at US counterpart Donald Trump.

The matching message from Mr Wang at the two-day event in Singapore sought to amplify China's assurances that it will improve its lopsided market access for foreign companies, a longstanding complaint from the US and others, analysts say.

"Two Chinese leaders delivering these messages domestically and internationally is meant as a clear signal to the world," Wei Zongyou, an international studies professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, told the South China Morning Post.

"China wants to showcase a determination to open up its doors and welcome foreign companies to the country, to work with others to promote the development of global free trade."

The rare speech by Mr Wang comes amid an effort by top Communist Party leaders to reassure global investors spooked by the US-China trade war and a deepening slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.

While Mr Trump has asked cabinet officials outline the terms of a possible deal with Mr Xi, Chinese officials have given no indication they are ready to meet key US demands, such as halting forced technology transfers or rolling back support for state-owned enterprises.

On Monday, Mr Trump told a campaign rally in Fort Wayne, Indiana, that he still believed he and Mr Xi could settle the dispute.

The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.7 per cent Tuesday, trimming last week’s rally. The yuan weakened as much as 0.16 per cent to 6.9240 per dollar in offshore trading after its best week since March.

“We’re going to see these two sides continue to dig in their heels - both sides still think they have the upper hand,” Scott Kennedy, deputy director of China studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told Bloomberg Television.

“For President Trump, even though he’s signalling that it’s possible they want a deal, there’s actually no monster benefit to him economically or politically. So I think they’ll continue to do this dance and all of us will continue to watch.”

Even as the US and China spar over everything from tariffs to American support for the democratically run island of Taiwan, the two sides have sought to preserve broader ties.

Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Secretary of Defence James Mattis announced Monday that they would host their Chinese counterparts Friday in Washington for a regular diplomatic and security dialogue.

The resumption of high-level dialogue, marked by a phone call last week between Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping, comes ahead of an expected meeting between the two at the G20 summit in Argentina starting in late November.

China and the US have both described last week's telephone call between Xi and Trump as positive. 

Speaking at the same forum as Mr Wang, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, said he was “fairly optimistic” the US and China could avoid a wider conflict that would devastate the current world order.

Trade negotiators from both sides should avoid getting bogged down in details and first explain to each other what objectives they are seeking to achieve, and what concessions they can and cannot make, he said.

“If the world order becomes defined by continuous conflict between the US and China, sooner or later it risks getting out of control,” said Mr Kissinger, who brokered the US rapprochement with China as former president Richard Nixon’s secretary of state more than four decades ago and has advised US presidents ever since.

“Some disagreements are inevitable but the objective needs to be that both countries recognize that a fundamental conflict between them will destroy hope for the world order,” he said.

“I think that that objective can be achieved and I am in fact fairly optimistic that it will be achieved.”

Americans need to learn that not every crisis is caused by ill will, while China must evolve beyond the model of being the leading great power of Asia, Mr Kissinger said.

“The world would be in terrible shape” if the US and China allowed commercial issues to evolve into strategic conflict, he said, adding: “I think we have high incentives to avoid catastrophe.”

Mr Wang, who was making his third overseas trip since assuming the government’s No. 2 post in March, also used the speech on Tuesday to express concerns about growing populist sentiment. He said the trend, along with rapid technological advances and global demographic shifts, demanded a new approach to global governance.

“We are facing the challenge of rising populism and unilateralism,” Mr Wang said.

“Such rapid changes have split some countries and societies. The polarisation of right-leaning populism has manifested itself in political demands, which has led to unilateral policies against globalisation and seriously affected the international political ecosystem.”

Mr Wang, who last year retired from China’s supreme Politburo Standing Committee, has been called on to handle some of China’s most difficult tasks over the years. From 2012 to 2017, he oversaw Mr Xi’s unprecedented crackdown on corruption, which ensnared more than 1.5 million officials including the country’s former top general and ex-domestic security chief.

Mr Wang also helped set up China’s first investment bank with Morgan Stanley in the 1990s. He maintains close ties with prominent Wall Street figures and has also played a more diplomatic role, receiving foreign dignitaries, including Stephen Bannon, Mr Trump’s former chief strategist. AGENCIES

PM LEE HOSTS LUNCH FOR CHINESE VP

Photo: MCI

SINGAPORE - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong hosted visiting Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan to lunch on Tuesday (Nov 6), where both leaders discussed bilateral cooperation and voiced support for an inclusive rules-based multilateral trading system.

"Prime Minister Lee and Vice President Wang discussed the broad and substantial cooperation between our two countries which was built upon the strong foundations laid by earlier generations of leaders," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, adding that they welcomed the conclusion of the negotiations to upgrade the China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement. 

"Vice President Wang also spoke about the developments in China. Both leaders exchanged views on key global and regional developments, including Sino-US relations, and expressed support for an inclusive, free and open, rules-based multilateral trading system." 

Mr Wang, who is on a two-day official visit to Singapore, spoke at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum earlier on Tuesday morning. 

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