Cablegate: Media Reaction: U.S. Tariffs On Chinese Tire Imports

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DE RUEHBJ #2657 2590915
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 160915Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6094
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
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UNCLAS BEIJING 002657

DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/CM, EAP/PA, EAP/PD, C
HQ PACOM FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR (J007)
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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON KMDR OPRC CH

SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: U.S. TARIFFS ON CHINESE TIRE IMPORTS

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Editorial Quotes
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a: "Obama claims the U.S. does not challenge China"

The official Communist Party international news publication Global
Times (Huanqiu Shibao)(09/16)(pg 16): "Chinese Ministry of Commerce
Spokesperson Yao Jian said that the U.S. sent the wrong message to
the world. At the G20 summit, China will continue to oppose
protectionism but does not want this issue to damage U.S.-China
relations. There are two opinion camps in the U.S. The Chairman of
the American Iron and Steel Workers' Union implied that the union
would urge the government to continue its campaigns to resist
products made in China, while CNN issued an article named 'it is a
bad idea to have a trade war with China.' Zhou Shijian, a
researcher at the U.S.-China Relations Study Center at Qinghua
University, argues that this trade dispute is normal and it will not
cause a trade war. As the world's factory, China is often treated
as a scapegoat by other countries. China should actively respond to
this case and fight vigorously against it, but the fight should be
within certain parameters; because neither the U.S. nor China wants
the fight to expand into other areas. Jiang Yong, Director at the
Economic Security Center at China Institute of Contemporary
International Relations (CICIR) believes that the U.S. will not
continue down this path since the safeguard measures concern U.S.
domestic interests. At present, U.S. economic recovery is not
optimistic. Moreover, China quickly responded to the U.S. tariffs,
which shows that China has prepared and warns the U.S. that it
should not enlarge this trade dispute."

b: "Hu Jintao will express China's views at four summits in the
U.S."

The Shanghai-based Shanghai Media Group (SMG) publication, China
Business News (Diyi Caijing)(02/03) (pg A1): "The coming Pittsburg
summit opens while the crisis has almost reached its bottom and
financial recovery is having difficulties. All the participating
countries have a vague idea of the present situation and are arguing
about how to deal with it. Ma Xiaolin, an expert on international
issues, has said that, at the summit, China's views will become the
views of the main stream. China will be supportive of the remedy
policies of other countries. Withdrawing from the economic recovery
plans, which is considered by many countries to be the main topic at
the summit, may not be practical. A large scale of withdraw from
economic rescue plans is impossible. The G20 summit in Pittsburgh,
in light of the recent Sino-U.S. tire dispute and the countervailing
and anti-dumping investigations on U.S. poultry and auto imports,
may give rise to a protectionism debate. In order to responsibly
promote global economic recovery, China will continue to emphasize,
together with the other participants, the agreements agreed upon
during the last two summits, which express firm opposition to
protectionism and agree that trade safeguard measures are best not
used at all, used less often."

c:"Chinese bean market should not be limited by the U.S."

The official Communist Party international news publication Global
Times (Huanqiu Shibao)(09/16)(pg 15): "China, which accounts for
fifty percent of the global bean trade, is losing control of bean
prices. U.S. bean subsidies have significantly impacted China's
bean market and seriously threatened China's bean production.
Because of the impact of imported American beans, China's bean
market, bean workers' employment and ordinary people's living
standards have all been influenced. For China, giving up certain
bean production chain industries will lose them huge economic
interests, a great deal of employment opportunity and food security
for China. China, possesses obvious advantages in natural bean
resources, and has realized less than one third of the
self-generated bean products industry. This shows that China has
not paid enough attention to maintaining the supply-demand balance
for food production. China urgently needs to conduct anti-dumping
and countervailing investigations and protect domestic bean
producers from imported U.S. beans in order to fight against the
U.S.'s abusive use of special protectionist measures. China wants
to tell the U.S. that it will not always be a juvenile in
'anti-dumping, countervailing and trade safeguards measures,' but
that it has an obligation to maintain free global trade by using
these measures."

HUNTSMAN

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