China's Xi calls out 'selfish, short-sighted' trade policies

Reuters  |  QINGDAO, China 

By and Shu Zhang

Xi did not mention the during a speech at a summit meeting of the (SCO), a regional security bloc led by and

"We reject selfish, shortsighted, closed, narrow policies, (we) uphold rules, support a multi-lateral trade system, and building an open world economy," Xi said in a speech in the port city of

The and China have threatened tit-for-tat tariffs on goods worth up to $150 billion each, as has pushed to open its economy further and address the United States' large trade deficit with China.

Xi spoke hours after Trump said he was backing out of the communique, thwarting what appeared to be a fragile consensus on a trade dispute between and its top allies.

"We must ... discard Cold War thinking, group confrontation; we object to acts of getting one's own absolute security at the cost of other countries' security," Xi said.

The SCO was launched in 2001 to combat radical Islam and other security concerns in China, and across

It added two new members, and Pakistan, last year and has been knocking at the door. is currently an observer rather than a full member of a bloc that also includes four ex-Soviet

Xi also said China would offer the equivalent of 30 billion yuan ($4.7 billion) in loans under a framework formed by SCO countries.

($1 = 6.4031 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by and Christian Shepherd; writing by Tony Munroe; additional reporting by Hallie Gu; editing by Richard Pullin)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Sun, June 10 2018. 10:23 IST