China says U.S. blaming Xi for blocking trade deal is ‘bogus’

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BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Thursday comments made by a senior White House official blaming Chinese President Xi Jinping for blocking progress on a deal to avert a trade war were “shocking” and “bogus” accusations.

The United States and China this month slapped tariffs on $34 billion of each other’s imports in an escalating trade tussle that has roiled financial markets.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened further tariffs unless Beijing agrees to change its intellectual property practices and high-technology industrial subsidy plans.

On Wednesday, Larry Kudlow, who heads the White House Economic Council, said that he believed lower-ranking Chinese officials want a deal, including Xi’s senior economic adviser Liu He, but that Xi has refused to make changes to China’s technology transfer and other trade policies.

Asked about Kudlow’s comments, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “That the relevant United States official unexpectedly distorted the facts and made bogus accusations is shocking and beyond imagination.”

“The United States’ flip-flopping and promise-breaking is recognized globally,” she told a regular briefing in Beijing.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china/china-says-its-clear-who-is-right-and-wrong-in-trade-row-with-u-s-idUSKBN1K90UF

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