Xinhua News Agency: During his visit to China, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly expressed his concern to the Chinese side about the global economic consequences of China’s “industrial overcapacity”. He said that the question of “overcapacity” is the one that is “front and center” in the China-US relationship, “This is a movie that we’ve seen before, and we know how it ends — with American businesses shuttered and American jobs lost.” What’s your comment?

Lin Jian: During Secretary Blinken’s visit, China made its position clear on this issue. The “China overcapacity” accusation may look like an economic discussion, but the truth is, the accusation is built on false logic and ignores more than 200 years of the basic concept of comparative advantage in Western economics. All countries produce and export products of their comparative advantage and this is the nature of international trade. If a country should be accused of overcapacity and asked to cut capacity whenever it produces more than its domestic demand, then what would countries trade with? If exporting 12 percent of Chinese-made EVs is called overcapacity, then what about Germany, Japan and the US who export 80, 50 and 25 percent respectively of their automobiles? Wouldn’t that be considered more serious overcapacity? Let’s not forget that according to the statistics of the International Energy Agency, to realize carbon neutrality, the world will need 45 million NEVs by 2030, 4.5 times that of the demand of 2022. When the global capacity is still far below the market demand, how could there be “overcapacity”?

The US knows full well that this “overcapacity” allegation is against economic common sense and industry facts, yet still labels China with it. The US claim of “China overcapacity” is not a market-driven conclusion, but a crafted narrative to manipulate perception and politicize trade. The real purpose is to hold back China’s high-quality development and deprive China of its legitimate right to development. There isn’t a “China overcapacity”, but a US overcapacity of anxiety stemming from lack of confidence and smears against China.

As President Xi Jinping pointed out, China welcomes a confident, open, prosperous and thriving United States, and hopes the United States will also look at China’s development in a positive light. The US said it does not seek to contain China’s economy or bar China’s progress in science and technology. We urge the US to honor those words, and stop spreading the false “overcapacity” narrative, stop going after China’s new energy sector with unfair and non-market means and stop impeding the global effort to achieve green transition and development.