Above: Song Yumin speaking at the Chinese Embassy. Photo by Mark Lyndersay.

Speaking at an event celebrating the return of the fourth contingent of students from UWI and UTT from China as part of Huawei’s Seeds of the Future education programme, H.E. Song Yumin, Ambassador of China to Trinidad and Tobago took note of the continued tensions between China and the United States.

“In March 2018, the United States unilaterally initiated economic and trade frictions towards China,” Song Yumin said last night. “China had to take forceful measures to defend the interests of the nation and its people. At the same time, committed to resolving disputes through dialogue and consultation, China has engaged in multiple rounds of economic and trade consultations with the US in an effort to stabilize the bilateral commercial relationship.”

“The Chinese Government rejects the idea that threats of a trade war and continuous tariff hikes can ever help resolve trade and economic issues. Disputes and conflicts on the trade and economic front, at the end of the day, need to be solved through dialogue and consultations.”

“Striking a mutually beneficial and win-win agreement serves the interests of China and the US and meets the expectations of the world. We hope the US can pull in the same direction with China and, in a spirit of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, manage economic and trade differences, strengthen trade and economic cooperation, and jointly advance China-US relations based on coordination, cooperation and stability for the well-being of both nations and the world.”

Yumin pointed to a document released last week that summarises the impasse between the major trading partners from the perspective of China, China’s Position on the China-U.S. Economic and Trade Consultations.

The ambassador also lauded the growth of Huawei Technologies and its CSR programmes, including Seeds of the Future and pointed to the company’s leading position in 5G deployment.

TSTT’s GM for Enterprise Solutions for TSTT, Ian Galt promised in an earlier presentation the implementation of the first 5G network in Trinidad and Tobago by December 2019 in partnership with Huawei as service and hardware provider.

Through its embassy, China is celebrating 45 years of formal diplomatic relations with Trinidad and Tobago and this country is a signatory to China’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative.

“Opening-up was key to China’s development over the past 40 years,” said Yumin in a veiled dig at current isolationist movements in the US.

“In the same vein, high-quality development of China’s economy in the future can only be achieved with greater openness. China will continue to deepen reform and opening-up. China’s door will not be closed; it will only open even wider.”