China condemns US tariffs, accuses Washington of ‘double standards’

China on Sunday, 12 October, strongly criticised the United States’ decision to impose 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods, calling the move a display of “double standards” and vowing to continue implementing its export control measures in a “prudential and moderate manner.”

The response came after US President Donald Trump, on 10 October, announced additional tariffs set to take effect from 1 November. The US cited China’s “extraordinarily aggressive” new export restrictions on rare-earth minerals as the reason and also threatened to cancel a planned meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month.

In a statement, China’s Ministry of Commerce said, “On 9 October, China released export control measures on rare earths and related items, which are normal actions taken by the Chinese government in accordance with laws and regulations to refine its own export control system.”

The ministry emphasised that China, “as a responsible major country, always firmly safeguards its national security and international common security, takes a just and reasonable principled position, and implements export control measures in a prudential and moderate manner.”

Beijing accused Washington of escalating economic pressure since September and highlighted the imbalance in the two countries’ export control regimes.

“The US remarks reflect a textbook ‘double standard’. For a long time, the US has overstretched the concept of national security, abused export control, taken discriminatory actions against China, and imposed unilateral long-arm jurisdiction measures on various products, including semiconductor equipment and chips,” the ministry said.

It also pointed out that while the US Commerce Control List (CCL) covers over 3,000 items, China’s Export Control List of Dual-use Items covers only about 900. The ministry criticized the US for imposing the “de minimis” rule with a zero per cent threshold, saying these actions “seriously harmed the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of companies, disrupted the international economic and trade order, and undermined the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains.”

With IANS inputs