New power shift as defiant China asserts role in global affairs

China’s liberal support for its exporters has led to frictions with its trade partners, particularly with the United States.

Trade row

A full-blown trade row erupted between the two countries in September after Beijing accused Washington of “rampant protectionism” for imposing heavy duties on imported Chinese tyres and threatened action against imports of US poultry and vehicles.

In signing the order subjecting Chinese tyre imports to 35 per cent duty on top of the existing 4 per cent, Obama sided with America’s trade unions, which have complained that a “surge” in imports of Chinese-made tyres had caused 7,000 job losses among US factory workers.

China’s minister of commerce Chen Deming told the media that Obama’s decision was sending “the wrong signal to the world” at a time when Washington and Beijing should be cooperating with each other to deal with the worst economic and financial crisis in decades.

China has glowed in the global consensus that the economic crisis had accelerated its emergence as an established centre of power.

In Pittsburgh the group of rich industrialised countries agreed that decisions on global economic issues in the future will have to include important players among emerging economies like China and India.

Speaking from Istanbul where the World Bank and the IMF held their annual meetings over the weekend, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said the crisis had brought the curtain down on the unipolar world that followed the collapse of communism 20 years ago.

In the future, he said “there will certainly be a larger role for the emerging powers, there will be multipolar sources of growth."