BEIJING: China barred an American warship on Tuesday from visiting Hong Kong, breaking from a long-held tradition of ships making a port call at the island city.
Beijing’s trade negotiator, meanwhile, said there was no way it could negotiate with the United States as long it “holds a knife” to China’s neck.
These separate incidents, occurring the same day, represent a worsening of the relationship between the two countries. China earlier called off military talks that had been scheduled in Beijing in protest against Washington’s decision to impose financial sanctions on a Chinese military organisation.
The US assault ship Wasp had been due to call in at Hong Kong, a former British colony, in October, diplomatic sources said.
“The Chinese government did not approve a request for a US port visit to Hong Kong by the
USS Wasp,” a US consulate spokeswoman said. “We have a long track record of successful port visits to Hong Kong, and we expect that to continue,” she added.
The Chinese foreign ministry did not directly discuss this issue but said approvals for making port calls at Hong Kong have always been given on a case-by-case basis, meaning there is no such thing as blanket approval.
“For requests for US military ships to visit Hong Kong, China has always carried out approvals case by case, in accordance with the principle of sovereignty and the detailed situation,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.
The Chinese position on the US hardened after the
Donald Trump administration went ahead Monday with a tax hike on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. Beijing hit back by slapping duties on $60 billion worth of US products. There are indications that China is enhancing pressure on American companies by slowing down customs clearance and increasing environmental and other inspections.
Chinese deputy commerce minister Wang Shouwen said there was no scope of talks as long as Washington kept up pressure on China. “Now that the United States has adopted such large-scale restrictive measures and holds a knife to another’s neck, how can negotiations proceed?” Wang said at a news conference. “It would not be negotiations of equality.”
He pointed out that the last round of talks between trade delegations of the two countries in Washington in August had ended without progress.
Experts have warned that the conflict between the world’s two largest economies would reduce global growth by 0.5 percentage points through 2020.
