“Chinese Official Calls to Reject Protectionism“

That was a headline in Xinhua recently. This would have been an absurd statement a few years ago, particularly when the Western nations were breaking down China’s protectionist door to obtain access to its domestic markets.

Today is a new day. Now that the US stance has turned more aggressive, and we have several trade disputes that have been formally lodged against China, it is only natural that the Chinese attempt to defend their position by denouncing the actions as protectionism. Sometimes this is a decent argument (e.g. dispute over paper subsidies) and sometimes it doesn’t quite fit (e.g. WTO actions re: IP and market access).

Nonetheless, this rhetoric will no doubt continue as long as we find ourselves in the midst of these kinds of trade disputes. Knowing the underlying political context of these statements somehow does not make it any more surprising to hear stuff like this directed towards the US from China:

With trade protectionism pressures growing, measures taken by certain countries — under the pretext of righting global imbalances — will hinder the trade liberalization process. [Deputy Director of PBOC speaking at the recent IMF/World Bank meeting.]