China blames US for trade talks breakdown

China blames US for the breakdown of trade talks between the world's two biggest economy. They accused US of backtracking three times over the course of the talks by introducing new tariffs and other conditions beyond what was agreed on.

Beijing: China issued a statement on Sunday blaming the United States for a trade dispute and said that it won't back down on 'major issues of principle,' but offered no clarification about what additional steps it will take.

The statement from the Cabinet spokesman's office said that China has kept its word throughout 11 rounds of talks and will honour its commitments if a trade agreement is reached.

They accused the US of backtracking three times over the course of the talks by introducing new tariffs and other conditions beyond what was agreed on.

Commerce Vice Minister Wang Shouwen fired back at US accusations that Beijing made last-minute changes to a working agreement during the last round of talks earlier this month, saying in English that "Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed."

"Negotiations are just discussions, it's not an agreement. There is no so-called 'backtracking'," Wang said.

The US has accused China of stealing trade secrets and forced technology transfers.

The Trump administration has imposed 25 per cent tariffs on 250 billion US dollars in Chinese imports and is planning to tax the 300 billion US dollars in imports that have so far been spared.

It also escalated the stakes this month by putting the Chinese telecom giant Huawei on a blacklist that effectively bars US companies from supplying it with computer chips, software and other components without government approval.

Beijing responded by imposing tariffs on 60 billion US dollars worth of US products, which went into effect Saturday.

It also retaliated against the US blacklisting of Huawei by announcing Friday that it will establish its own list of "unreliable entities" consisting of foreign businesses, corporations and individuals.

"This 'unreliable entities' list is directed towards some enterprises that have violated market principles and the spirit of contracts, and for non-commercial reasons, have blocked or cut supplies for Chinese enterprises," Wang said.

Wang mentioned American shipping company FedEx as an example, saying, "if they violate China's laws, then they should be investigated in accordance with Chinese law."

In response to a question about the speculation that China could retaliate against the US by cutting off rare earth exports, Wang said it was 'unacceptable' that a country 'abuse' China's rare earth exports to hurt its economic development.