MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/. China’s move to impose restrictions against the United States in response to the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act won’t affect Beijing’s plans to make a trade deal with Washington, Chairman of the Board of the Valdai International Discussion Club’s Development and Support Foundation Andrei Bystritsky told TASS on Monday.
"It will certainly have a negative impact [on relations between China and the US]. We can see the two countries exchanging threats. In fact, [US President] Donald Trump said that Washington was ready to impose sanctions if Hong Kong faced restrictions and the use of force. China wasted little time to give a response," the expert pointed out. "In fact, the Americans offer restrained support to Hong Kong, pointing to the scope for the use of force," he added.
"I don’t think that [a trade deal] will be delayed because these sanctions look more like a warning. Perhaps, it won’t affect trade deal talks or will even have a mitigating effect," Bystritsky noted.
According to him, the problem that Beijing and Washington are facing is that the US administration has to deal with attacks from the Democratic Party.
China earlier imposed sanctions on a number of US-headquartered non-government organizations and suspended the review of requests by US warships and aircraft to visit Hong Kong.
Trade deal issue
US President Donald Trump said on October 11 that the United States had come to a "very substantial phase one deal" with China. On October 16, he pointed out that a deal could be signed at his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of an APEC summit in Chile. However, the APEC event was cancelled and no new date was announced for a US-China summit.
On November 21, Chinese Commerce Ministry Spokesperson Gao Feng said that task forces from the two countries’ agencies involved in trade talks "maintain close contact." He did not give any details of an upcoming trade deal, pointing out that its signing would be "beneficial for both the United States and China, as well as for the entire world."
In early December, the Axios news website said, citing US administration sources, that trade deal talks had been suspended following the passing of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.