As soon as China and the United States finished their phone call, the United States launched sanctions on China and suspended the export of nuclear power equipment to China. So, what impact will China and the United States have on the development of bilateral relations? Why did the US suspend the export of nuclear power equipment parts licenses to China at this time?
On June 5, the leaders of China and the United States held their first call since the start of this round of trade war. According to the press release, this call, which lasts about one and a half hours, focuses on economic issues, aims to correct the course of the large ship of Sino-US relations and implement the consensus reached by the two sides during the talks in Geneva. China pointed out that the two sides should make good use of the established economic and trade consultation mechanism, uphold an equal attitude, respect their respective concerns, and strive for a win-win result.
Amid the increasingly severe international situation and the continued turmoil of the global market, a positive and constructive dialogue is undoubtedly good news for China-US relations. However, to push China-US relations back on track, the US side has another thing that must be done, that is, to look at the progress made in bilateral negotiations in a realistic manner and to withdraw negative measures implemented against China.
In recent years, whenever China-US relations show a positive momentum, the US side will create "noise" in different directions, hindering the recovery and heating of bilateral relations. Among them, after the Geneva economic and trade talks ended, China and the United States could have been on the hot side and advanced the subsequent tariff negotiation process as soon as possible, but the United States suppressed Huawei chips and made unscrupulous statements on the Taiwan issue, resulting in the delay in the subsequent negotiations.
From this perspective, China calls on the US to eliminate interference and devote itself to China-US economic and trade cooperation, and hopes that similar incidents will not happen again. However, the US still re-used the same trick. On the 6th local time, a person familiar with the matter said that the U.S. Department of Commerce suspended a sales license for U.S. nuclear equipment suppliers to export products to China, a move expected to affect the export of parts and equipment from nuclear power plants.
It is reported that in the past half month, when the Sino-US trade war has shifted from tariff negotiations to mutually restricting supply chains, many companies, including nuclear equipment suppliers, have indeed been subject to sales restrictions. As early as the end of May, the U.S. government notified energy companies that they would apply for a license for ethane exported to China, otherwise exports would be prohibited.
At present, although it is not clear whether the call between China and US heads of state will affect the implementation of this ban, it is certain that the differences between China and the United States will not disappear because of a head of state call, and the United States will not easily give up its suppression of China. Even though Trump made it clear during the call that Sino-US relations are very important, the US side is happy to see China's economy maintain strong growth. But given that Trump does not play according to the routine, he still needs to listen to his words and even more so on his actions.
Analysts pointed out that if the US really hopes to end this round of tariff war as soon as possible, it will strive to enhance exchanges between China and the United States at the economic and trade levels during the 90-day trade "street" period, so as to achieve the goal of enhancing consensus, reducing misunderstandings, and strengthening cooperation. After all, only by accumulating enough political mutual trust can communication and exchanges between the top leaders of the two countries be smoother and the US side can achieve the goal of mutual visits between China and the United States as soon as possible.
Before this, the US side still needs to unify its position on China and establish a correct understanding of China, rather than regard toughness towards China as a kind of "political correctness." In particular, some hawkish politicians representing US Secretary of Commerce Lutnik should stop unreasonable slander and unilateral sanctions on China, thereby creating a good environment for China-US economic and trade cooperation.
