"The US Trade Representative Office recently released a report which says that it was a mistake to let China enter the World Trade Organization (WTO), and China is getting farther away from a market economy. How would you respond to these comments?” Wang Hui from CGTN raised the question at the weekly press conference of Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

“We believe that a real and reasonable market economy should be an economic system in which the market plays a decisive role in resource allocation and fits its own country’s conditions. It should not be some standard imposed by other countries. China has been facilitating supply-side reform, economic system reform, and making efforts to let the market play a decisive role in resource allocation and the government play a better role. We have created a path for a socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics. It fits China's reality and many countries, including both developing and developed, believe they can learn from it,” responded Gao Feng, the spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce. 

In response to Washington’s criticism of China’s contribution to the WTO, the Commerce Ministry says that since entering the WTO 16 years ago, China has brought opportunities and been a driving force for the world economy, including the US. America’s exports to China have increased by four times, while the country’s exports to the rest of the world only increased by 90%. China is the third largest export market for the US, rising from the eighth.

Globally, China’s general tariff level has been lowered from about 15% to nearly 10%. In the 160 divisions of the service industry, China has opened up nearly 120. Now, China is one of the top three export markets of goods for 54 members of the WTO. The Chinese economy contributed more than 30% of the world’s economy in 2017. 

The conflicts between China and the US are not only confined to rhetoric, but take place in the real world. The trade relations between the two have seen ups and downs recently. US President Donald Trump on Jan. 22 approved imposing safeguard tariffs on large residential washing machines, solar cells and modules imported from around the world.

China is one of the major victims that will be hit hardest by this new action. Some people believe this is just the first step the US has made to launch a trade war with China. At the Davos forum, US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said that China’s 2015 strategy poses a threat to the US, and they are likely to investigate China’s infringement of intellectual property rights. Facing this kind of situation, Gao said that the economies of the US and China are intertwined and that cooperation benefits both nations.

Spokesman Gao Feng said that conflict would harm the two and create uncertainty and instability in the global economy. Beijing hopes that cooperation between China and the US would facilitate their development and create positive energy to drive global growth.

"I would like to reiterate that cooperation is the only correct choice for both China and the US. China's door of cooperation and dialogue is always open. We hope that China-US trade frictions won't get escalated, and the two sides can resolve their conflicts and facilitate pragmatic cooperation through a constructive way. Meanwhile, China will take all appropriate measures to firmly protect its own legitimate rights and interests, while coping with those unilateral and protectionist actions that don't follow the WTO's rules, " said Gao.