April 16 (UPI) — China on Wednesday named Li Chenggang as vice minister of commerce and the new international trade negotiation envoy, replacing Wang Shouwen.
Li, a former World Trade Organization ambassador and a former assistant commerce minister, was tapped for the job in an unexpected move amid an ongoing trade war between China and the United States brought on by sweeping tariffs imposed by the President Donald Trump and his administration.
Kenneth Jarrett, Albright Stonebridge Group senior advisor, said since Wang was a key “supporting player” negotiating with the first Trump administration, “presumably the same will be true of Li if and talks get off the ground.”
While both the United States and China have signaled openness to negotiating, neither has yet made the first move to get talks started.
“We firmly oppose the U.S. practice of tariff barriers and trade bullying,” Chinese deputy commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics Sheng Laiyun said at a Wednesday news conference.
“It violates the economic laws and principles of the World Trade Organization, has a serious impact on the world economic order, and drags down the recovery of the world economy.”
He said that the U.S. tariffs are putting pressure on China’s economy but the economy is resilient.
China’s GDP grew at a rate of 5.4% in the first quarter of 2025, according to the Chinese government.
An editorial in state-run media China Daily this week said the United Sttes should “stop whining” about being a world trade victim.
The editorial said, the United States “is not getting ripped off by anybody” but instead is “taking a free ride on the globalization train.”
China raised tariffs on U.S. imports to 125% on Friday in response to the Trump administration hiking tariffs on Chinese goods to 125% on Thursday. China’s government says the “abnormally high tariffs” is bullying that violates international trade rules.
