By Busayo Onijala

The success of China and the U.S. will present opportunities not threats because both share extensive common interests and a broad cooperation space, says China’s Commerce Minister, Wang Wentao.

Wang said this at a news conference organised on the sidelines of the Third Session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) on Thursday in Beijing.

He was speaking on China’s strategy in addressing tariff increments by the U.S. on Chinese goods.

He said that trade war had no winner and protectionism led nowhere.

“These practices of extortion with the threat of tariffs are typical of unilateralism and seriously disrupt and undermine normal China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation, and disrupt the stability in global industrial supply chains, impeding the development of world economy,” He said.

Wang said that coercion, intimidation and extortion will not work on China due to its firm resolve to uphold and safeguard its own interests.

“As for the unilateral tariffs imposed by the U.S., we have already taken necessary response measures in accordance with basic principles governing international law and the relevant laws and regulations.”

He said that China had always believed  that China-U.S. economic ties would  be mutually beneficial and that one side would not suffer losses and the other side  gaining benefits.

The minister recalled that in 2024, China-U.S. trade amounted to 688.2 billion dollars, up 18 per cent from 2017.

Quoting the China Business Climate Survey Report 2025, he said  that 46 per cent of the respondent companies planned to increase investment in 2025 and the same percentage expected to gain profits by a large margin.

“Chinese corporations have the fundamental interests of the two countries that meet the expectation of international community.

“As committed countries with different national realities, it is normal for us to have differences in economy and trade.

“We hope that the U.S. will work with China with respect, peaceful cooperation, in-house dialogue, and together, we push for healthy, stable and sustainable development of China-US economic ties,” Wang said. (NAN)(nannews.ng)

Edited by Ijeoma Popoola