Pence and Xi buy speeches at Pacific Summit

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea – Chinese President Xi Jinping and US Vice President Mike Pence exchanged speeches at a world leaders' summit on Saturday, highlighting their opposing visions for global leadership as trade and other tensions between them reigned.

Pence said President Donald Trump's policy to fight China's mercantilist trade policy and intellectual property theft that erupted in a tariff war between the two world powers this year will not falter. .

The United States imposed additional tariffs on Chinese goods worth $ 250 billion and China retaliated. Pence reiterated the Trump administration's threats to more than double the penalties.

"However, the United States will not change course as long as China has not changed," said Pence, accusing Beijing of intellectual property theft, unprecedented subsidies to state-owned enterprises and "formidable "Obstacles to the entry of foreign companies into its market.

Pence announced that the United States would participate in the Australian plan to develop a naval base in Papua New Guinea, where the summit will be held. China is actively courting Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island countries with assistance and infrastructure loans.

"Our vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific will prevail," said Pence.

The Vice President harshly criticized China's global infrastructure project, known as the Belts and Roads Initiative, which describes many of the low-quality projects that also require developing countries to obtain loans. they can not afford.

The United States, a democracy, is a better partner than authoritarian China, he said.

"Know that the United States offers a better option. We do not drown our partners in a sea of ​​debt, we do not force, do not compromise your independence, "said Pence. "We do not have a constriction belt or a one-way street. When you join us, we collaborate with you and we all prosper. "

Xi, who spoke before Pence, anticipated many American critics in his speech. He said countries face a choice of cooperation or confrontation as protectionism and unilateralism spread.

Xi expressed support for the global free trade system that has underpinned his country's rise over the past 25 years to the world's second-largest economy after the United States.

"The established rules should not be followed or folded as desired and they should not be applied with a double standard for selfish agendas," Xi said.

"Humanity has reached a crossroad again," he said. "Which direction should we choose? Cooperation or confrontation? Opening or closing doors. A win-win progress or a zero-sum game?

Reacting to a thunderous criticism of China's international infrastructure, Xi said it was not a trap or a seizure of power.

"It's not designed to serve a hidden geopolitical agenda, it does not target anyone and it does not exclude anyone," Xi said. "This is not an exclusive club that is closed to non-members, nor a trap as some people have tagged it."

Leaders from 21 countries and territories in the Pacific Basin, representing 60 percent of the global economy, meet in Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea, for an annual summit on Asia-Pacific economic cooperation .

They are struggling to reach agreement on a joint declaration, especially on the need to demand changes from the World Trade Organization, which defines the rules of trade and can penalize countries that violate them.

WTO member countries are unable to reach an agreement on trade liberalization for years and the organization is in danger of atrophy.

According to the Center for Strategic Studies and International Studies, two-thirds of its members claim the status of developing country allowing them to enjoy benefits and exemptions from obligations not granted to advanced economies. At the same time, the United States believes that the WTO arbitration body has made decisions that go beyond its mandate.

APEC is also faced with questions about its future. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, 93, said it would be useless if developing countries continued to be left behind by globalization and free trade.

China's land claims over much of the South China Sea bordering the nations of Southeast Asia were also a target in Pence's speech.

China has asked the United States to stop deploying military ships and aircraft near its artificial islands in contentious waters after the collision of US and Chinese ships near a disputed reef in September. But Pence said Saturday that the United States will not back down.

"We will continue to fly and sail where international law permits and our national interest demands it," he said. "Harassment will only strengthen our resolve. We will not change course.

Washington will continue to support the efforts of Southeast Asian nations to negotiate a legally binding "code of conduct with China" that respects the rights of all nations, including the freedom of navigation in the sea South China, "said Mr. Pence.

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