The Daily Telegraph Publishes a Signed Article by Ambassador Liu Xiaoming Entitled China can't let the law of the jungle harm world trade

2018年10月4日，英国主流大报《每日电讯报》纸质版和网络版同时刊登驻英国大使刘晓明题为《中国不容丛林法则破坏国际贸易体系》的署名文章。全文如下：

　　不久前，美国政府出台对2000亿美元中国输美商品加征关税的措施，引发国际社会对中美贸易摩擦持续升级的担忧。一些西方舆论也趁机炒作中国市场不够开放，指责中国“不公平贸易”行为破坏国际贸易体系。针对美方的错误举动和部分舆论的误解，中国政府专门发布了《关于中美经贸摩擦的事实与中方立场》白皮书。在此，我想强调三点：

On 4 October 2018, the Daily Telegraph and its website published a signed article by Ambassador Liu Xiaoming entitled China can't let the law of the jungle harm world trade. The full text is as follows:

The world is turned upside down. When the latest US tariffs on $200 billion (£153bn) of Chinese imports raised international concerns over escalation of trade disputes, some western media blamed China for not opening its market wide enough, thus undermining the multilateral trade regime with "unfair trade". However, China should not take the blame for the wrongs of the US. To clear the misperceptions, the Chinese Government released a white paper titled The Facts and China's Position on China-US Trade Friction, which, in my view, emphasises three key points.

　　首先，中国对外开放进程不仅符合自身国情，也认真履行了国际承诺。世界上任何一个国家对外开放都不是绝对的、无条件的，而是建立在符合自身国情基础之上，中国也不例外。根据国际货币基金组织数据，2017年中国人均国内生产总值仅有8643美元，排在世界第71位，大概相当于美国七分之一，英国五分之一，中国是名符其实的发展中国家。十多年前，我曾在中国最贫困的省份之一甘肃担任省长助理，到过中国最贫穷的地方。中国现在仍有3000多万贫困人口，8000多万残疾人，每年需要解决1500万人的就业。但即使这样，中国对外开放并未降低标准，而是不折不扣兑现了加入世贸组织时的承诺。以货物贸易为例，中国关税总水平早在2010年就已由2001年的15.3%降至9.8%，此后中国继续自主降低关税，到2015年中国贸易加权平均关税水平仅有4.4%，明显低于很多新兴经济体和发展中国家，已接近美国2.4%和欧盟3%的水平。在世贸组织12大类服务部门的160多项分部门中，中国已经开放9大类的100项，接近发达成员平均开放108项，远超发展中国家的54项。

First, China's opening up is based on its national conditions. The openness of a market is never absolute or unconditional. It is always based on the national conditions of the country concerned. China is no exception. According to IMF statistics of 2017, China's per capita GDP was only $8,643, ranking the 71st in the world and accounting for one seventh of the US and one fifth of the UK. More than 10 years ago, I served as Assistant Governor of Gansu, one of the least developed provinces in China, and visited some of the poorest places there. I know from personal experience the severe challenges China faces in terms of development. With more than 30 million people living in poverty, more than 80 million with various disabilities and 15 million people in need of a job every year, there is no denying that China is the largest developing country in the world. This is the basic national condition of China.

Despite this, China has never compromised the level of openness of its market. On the contrary, China has fulfilled its WTO commitments to the letter. Take the trade in goods as an example. By 2010, China had lowered average tariffs on imported goods from 15.3% to 9.8%, eight years ahead of scheduled cuts. But China did not stop there. Through further cuts on its own initiative, China had lowered the trade-weighted tariffs to 4.4% by 2015, which was significantly lower than many other emerging economies and developing countries, and was close to the levels of the US (2.4%) and the EU (3%). In services trade, China's commitment covers 9 of the 12 core services sectors according to WTO classification, namely 100 of the 160 sub-sectors. This is close to the average level (108) of developed countries and way ahead of the average level (54) of other developing countries.