Long-arm trade coercion

The United States seems intent on initiating long-term trade wars with almost all other countries and wantonly shaking the global stock markets and industrial value chains.

The additional tariffs the US is threatening to implement against China, for instance, will raise the operating costs of the world economy, hinder the spread of technology and innovation and lower global productivity, efficiency and investment, and thus cast a shadow over the global recovery.

That the US tries using forced technology transfers as an excuse for its tariffs against China sets a very bad example. It is a basic development right for developing countries to advance their industrialization and modernization through taking part in normal international trade and investment. The Chinese government has never forced multinational companies to transfer technology to Chinese companies. All the technology transfers between the two sides follow normal business practice. And in the current global labor distribution system dominated by multinational companies, the developed countries, with the US as the key representative, are the largest beneficiary of technology transfers.