SHANGHAI, June 9 — United States (US) and Chinese officials traded barbs at a celebration held by a US business chamber in Shanghai on Friday (June 6), as the chamber appealed to both countries to provide more certainty to American businesses operating in China.
The US Consulate in Shanghai's consul general Scott Walker told a gathering of US businesses aimed at celebrating the 110th anniversary of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Shanghai that the US-China economic relationship had been unbalanced and non-reciprocal "for far too long."
"We want an end to discriminatory actions and retaliation against US companies in China," he said.
In a speech that directly followed Walker's, Shanghai Communist Party official Chen Jing, who is also the president of the Shanghai People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, countered Walker's view.
"I believe the consul general's view is prejudiced, ungrounded and not aligned with the phone call of our heads of state last night," he said.
The interaction reflects the continued strained relationship between the two countries as the trade war continues to simmer.
US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke over a long-anticipated call on Thursday, confronting weeks of brewing trade tensions and a battle over critical minerals. Trump later said they agreed to further talks.
It came in the middle of a dispute between Washington and Beijing in recent weeks over "rare earths" minerals that threatened to tear up a fragile truce in the trade war between the two biggest economies.
The countries struck a 90-day deal on May 12 to roll back some of the triple-digit, tit-for-tat tariffs they had placed on each other since Trump's January inauguration, but the deal has not addressed broader concerns that strain the relationship, and Trump has accused China of violating the agreement.
AmCham Shanghai president Eric Zheng, whose organisation counts over 1,000 companies among its membership, told the press on the event's sidelines that many companies had put their decision-making on pause due to the uncertainty.
"People are looking for some more definitive, durable statements on both sides that enable businesses to feel more secure.
"Our number one ask from the two governments is to give us some certainty so that we can plan accordingly," he said.
— Reuters
