China urges 'calm and rational' resolution to US-Sino trade war

Beijing - We believe this will benefit both countries' people and the world: Vice-Commerce Minister Wang

China hopes Beijing and Washington will resolve their trade dispute "with a calm and rational attitude", Vice-Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen said on Sunday, ahead of talks in two weeks between the two sides.
The United States and China have been locked in an escalating trade war for over a year. They have levied punitive duties on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other's goods, roiling financial markets and threatening global growth.
A new round of high-level talks between the world's two largest economies is expected in Washington on October 10-11, led from the Chinese side by President Xi Jinping's top economic adviser, Vice-Premier Liu He.
Wang, who has been part of China's negotiating team with the United States, told a news conference that Liu would go to Washington for the talks the week after China's National Day holiday, which ends on October 7.
He said he hoped both sides would find ways to resolve their differences. "We believe this will benefit both countries' people and the world," he added.
The Trump administration is considering radical new financial pressure tactics on Beijing, including the possibility of delisting Chinese companies from US stock exchanges.
Sources told Reuters on Friday that the move would be part of a broader effort to limit US investments into Chinese companies, in part because of growing security concerns about their activities.
Earlier, Commerce Minister Zhong Shan told the news conference in Beijing that Chinese companies faced many difficulties due to the trade frictions which he said posed unprecedented trade challenges to the country.
China would expand imports, and measures to stabilise trade would yield positive results, he said without giving details.
"Trade faces unprecedented challenges," Zhong told a news conference in Beijing.
"These challenges are both external and internal."
China will open up more sectors of the economy to foreign investors, and its policy of protecting foreign companies' rights in the country will not change, Wang also said on Sunday.
No delisting plans 'at this time'
Meanwhile, the United States does not currently plan to stop Chinese companies from listing on US exchanges, Bloomberg reported, citing a US Treasury official.
"The administration is not contemplating blocking Chinese companies from listing shares on US stock exchanges at this time," Bloomberg quoted Treasury spokeswoman Monica Crowley as saying.
Reuters reported on Friday that President Donald Trump's administration is considering delisting Chinese companies from US stock exchanges in a move that would be part of a broader effort to limit US investment in Chinese companies.
The Treasury did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.