The Trade Issue That Most Divides U.S. and China on Trade Isn’t Tariffs
By KEITH BRADSHERMARCH 26, 2018
BEIJING — China has struck a hard stance on the issue at the root of the looming trade fight between Beijing
and Washington: China’s government-led drive, which Washington describes as breaking international rules, to build the cutting-edge industries of the future.
While Chinese trade officials have been willing to discuss buying more chips from factories in the United States,
that could take market share from Japan and South Korea.
China — which has the world’s second-largest economy, after the United States,
and is the world’s largest manufacturer by far, of everything from steel and cement to laptop computers — had made too much progress to be lumped in with poor countries, he said.
The White House argues that will result in global capacity gluts
that could drive down prices and destroy the viability of tech companies in the West, as well as in countries, like Japan and South Korea, that are allied with the United States.
“Pretending it is like India, or like Senegal, or like Botswana is pushing the envelope too far,” Mr. Lamy said.
American officials say the problem is that China’s national, provincial
and municipal governments are working with state-owned banks to rush the construction of new factories, particularly to make memory chips.