The recent U.S. launch of a Section 301 investigation targeting overcapacity is a typical act of unilateralism that severely disrupts the international economic order, a Chinese commerce ministry official said Tuesday.
Lin Weilong, director of the policy research department of the Ministry of Commerce, said at a press conference that the attempts to draw a connection between global economic imbalances and the so-called 'overcapacity' are nothing more than oversimplifications, deliberate obfuscations, and ill-intended manipulations.
"The recent U.S. launch of a Section 301 investigation under the pretext of 'overcapacity' is a typical act of unilateralism that severely disrupts the international economic order. The United States should not narrowly define production capacity that exceeds its domestic demand as 'overcapacity' and slap such a label on it. Still less does the United States have the right to unilaterally determine whether its trading partners have 'overcapacity' through a Section 301 investigation, let alone impose restrictive measures on that basis. China urges the United States to correct its wrongful practices and return to the right track of resolving differences through dialogue and consultation. China will closely follow the developments, and reserves the right to take necessary steps to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests," he said.
China slams US 301 probe targeting overcapacity as unilateralism
In the first half of this year, the vitality of business entities in China and the high-end development of the industrial structure have been further improved, delivering solid achievements in high-quality development, an official with the State Taxation Administration (STA) said on Tuesday.
Hu Jinglin, the STA commissioner, told a press conference that the number of tax-paying business entities has increased during the period. "Tax data showed that the vitality of business entities in China has further improved from January to June. The number of active tax-paying business entities that are operating normally in China rose 20.2 percent year on year and the number of tax declaration companies gained 10 percent year on year," said Hu.
Hu noted that high-tech and digital economy industries saw a surge in sales revenue during the same period.
"The high-end development of the industrial structure has been further advanced. The sales revenue of high-tech industries and core digital economy industries increased 15 percent and 8.7 percent year on year, respectively. And their share of the total enterprise sales revenue expanded 1.7 percentage points and 1.1 percentage points year on year, respectively. At the same time, the profits of high-tech manufacturing enterprises and digital product service enterprises surged 29.2 percent and 64.4 percent year on year, respectively," said the official.
China's foreign investment inflows and foreign trade exports continued to demonstrate strong resilience in the six months, Hu added.
"The stability of [China's] opening up to the world has been further enhanced. The number of foreign-funded tax-paying entities rose 10.9 percent year on year. The total profit declared by foreign-funded enterprises increased 4.5 percent year on year. The number of export tax rebates processed by the tax authorities for enterprises gained 7.7 percent year on year. These figures indicate that China's introduction of foreign investment and foreign trade exports continue to maintain strong resilience," he said.
China's business vitality further enhanced in H1
