Source: Global Times
In response to senators' questions at a recent Senate hearing, The proposed U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adejemo said that China has taken unfair measures and that the United States should take joint action with other countries to make China feel isolated by the world and ensure a level playing field for companies in the United States and other countries.
This is not the first senior Biden administration official to publicly accuse China of unfair competition, nor will it be the last. In response to the above statement, the author's view is: listen to his words, but it is even more important to look at his deeds. After Biden took office as the new president, he nominated a large number of high-level officials for approval by the Senate. The nominated officials will try to accommodate the positions of the MPs in their answers. Now that the U.S. Congress has a more negative view of China as a whole, the nominees are bound to take a tough stance in such an environment.
"Unfair" is a common word in American life and is more widely used to express feelings of loss, dissatisfaction, and disappointment. The United States also often uses the term unfair to complain about many differences with its allies such as Germany and Japan.
One of the biggest accusations of alleged unfair behavior by the United States against China was the manipulation of the renminbi exchange rate, thereby adding an unfair competitive advantage to Chinese companies. But on January 10, 2017, then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lu said publicly that China had not sought an unfair trade advantage through the depreciation of its renminbi over the past 18 months. On August 5, 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department designated China as a "currency manipulator." However, four days later, the IMF issued a report saying that although the rmb depreciated against the US dollar, China's foreign exchange reserves were sufficient, while the actual effective exchange rate of the renminbi depreciated at about 2.5%, and there was no indication that China had implemented large-scale foreign exchange intervention. On January 13, 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department revoked its designation as a "currency manipulator" of China. The Biggest U.S. complaints about China's previous injustices have proven unfounded.
"Unfair" is the opposite of "fairness", and fairness and unfairness should be evaluated on the basis of a standard of certainty. Previously, the United States unilaterally set a standard for "currency manipulators" under the Trade Simplification and Trade Enhancement Act of 2015, and its biggest flaw was to exclude the United States itself. And we all know that the United States has been through the Federal Reserve's currency injection, which has an important impact on the direction of the dollar exchange rate, in fact, the United States is the largest currency manipulator.
When the United States complains about unfairness, it should look at how much responsibility China has shouldered as a big country. China deepens the reform of domestic institutional mechanisms, builds a dual-cycle development pattern, and is committed to improving people's well-being; holding international import expos, launching the "Belt and Road" initiative, etc., to expand the opening up of the domestic market; during the Southeast Asian financial crisis, China insisted that the RMB exchange rate did not depreciate, playing an important role in stabilizing the international economy, the outbreak of the US subprime mortgage crisis in 2008 and constantly threatening the stability of the international economic system, China took the initiative to expand domestic demand, played a role in the responsibility of a big country; after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, China has actively participated in global anti-epidemic cooperation by sharing anti-epidemic experience, providing technical information, dispatching medical personnel, and supplying COVID-19 vaccines, and has played an important role in the world's fight against COVID-19. China remains a large developing country and has assumed disproportionate international responsibilities. The per capita GDP of the United States is about 60,000 US dollars, and the average GDP of Chinese has just crossed the threshold of 10,000 US dollars, and the per capita GDP of the United States is 6 times that of China, while the proportion of the United Nations dues borne by the United States is 22%, China is about 12%, and the United States is only 1.8 times that of China. On 4 May 2020, China paid its 2020 UN contributions in full. According to the data released by the UN Committee on Contributions, as of November 2, 2020, 61 of the 193 Member States of the United Nations still had not paid their contributions for the current year. The biggest of these is the United States. As of that time, the total unpaid contributions of UN Member States amounted to $1.497 billion, of which the United States owed $1.09 billion, representing 73 per cent of the total unpaid contributions. Member States owed $2.557 billion in unpaid peacekeeping and related costs, of which the United States owed $1.388 billion, or 54 per cent of total unpaid peacekeeping costs.
We should be fair about what U.S. officials say, but we should be wary of the real intentions behind U.S. "unfairness." The Biden administration did not first complain about China's unfair competition. The magnitude of the U.S. complaints about China's unfairness is positively correlated with the enhancement of China's comprehensive national strength. The United States has gone from complaining to blaming China's so-called unfair competition, and then from accusation to sin. Behind it is not only the change in the mentality of the United States on China's development, but also the anxiety of the United States to challenge the leadership of the United States after imagining that China is strong. The above-mentioned changes in mentality and anxiety are manifested in words by accusing China of doing things unfairly. Through repeated accusations, a "narrative" unfavorable to China is formed in the international community. Once this "narrative" is formed, the international community forms a false impression of China, and it is justified to take irrational and anti-international resistance measures (such as protectionist measures) against China.
At present, the world is in a major change that has not been seen in a century. The international community needs to face many international challenges, and countries also face many domestic problems. Countries should focus on domestic problems, make great determination, and make great efforts to deepen domestic reforms, rather than "throwing the pot" at others when they encounter problems. If all countries have less unfair complaints, more down-to-earth, courage and determination, and join hands to overcome difficulties, I believe that the evolution of the global order can reduce fluctuations and twists and turns. (The writer is a visiting researcher at the Center for Strategy and Security Studies, Tsinghua University, and a senior researcher at the Research Institute of China Construction Bank)