News - Middle East: China has warned the United States against moves to “politicize” trade issues, saying such measures will prove “disastrous” for the global economy.

In an attempt to mend strained trade ties between the world's two biggest economies despite tensions over multiple issues, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is currently on a four-day visit to the Asian country.
During a meeting between Raimondo and Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday, China’s top official, however, lay into Washington’s trade curbs against Beijing.
The US claims that such measures are necessary for its national security while China insists that they are meant to clip its economic rise.
“Politicizing economic and trade issues and overstretching the concept of security will... seriously affect bilateral relations and mutual trust,” China's official Xinhua news agency quoted Li as telling his the American side.
They “also undermine the interests of enterprises and people of the two countries, and will have a disastrous impact on the global economy”, Li added.
Raimondo’s trip to China is the latest by a senior US official in recent months as Washington tries to settle tensions with Beijing, as the US-China relations have dropped to some of their lowest levels in decades, with US trade curbs near the top of the list of disagreements.
The development came days after US President Joe Biden issued an executive order aimed at restricting certain US investments in sensitive high-tech areas in China, prompting Beijing to denounce it as being “anti-globalization.”
The fresh restrictions, expected to be implemented in 2014, target sectors such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence.