Top Beijing envoy to US criticises Biden’s moves targeting Chinese products over national security

Seeing e-vehicles as ‘iPhone on wheels’ or cargo cranes as ‘Trojan horses’ yields never-ending cycle and ‘excessive anxiety’, says Ambassador Xie Feng

Diplomat appears to reference US investigation into connected technology used in Chinese vehicles and actions meant to make American ports more secure

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Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the United States, began his assignment in Washington in May 2023. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:47am, 15 Mar 2024Updated: 1:58am, 15 Mar 2024

China’s top envoy to the US criticised President Joe Biden’s recent moves targeting Chinese products on national security grounds, even as he acknowledged that the American leader’s recent summit with President Xi Jinping helped to stabilise the bilateral relationship.

Speaking at a conference hosted by Chinese state media outlets on Thursday, Ambassador Xie Feng appeared to reference an investigation into connected technology used in Chinese vehicles and actions aimed at reducing possible vulnerabilities tied to products from the country in American port infrastructure.

“Viewing e-vehicles as ‘iPhone[s] on wheels’ or describing cargo cranes as ‘Trojan horses’ only gets one into a never-ending cycle – overstretching national security leads to excessive anxiety,” Xie said, according to a report on the ambassador’s remarks published by his embassy.

“If ‘de-risking’ is all about China, it means lost opportunities and lose-lose outcomes,” it added. “After all, with over 70,000 American companies investing in China and the two economies so closely connected, a forced ‘decoupling’ can be too expensive.”

US government concerns about potential national security vulnerabilities embedded in Chinese products and investments in America have gathered momentum for years, prompting measures like a law in 2018 that strengthened the authorities of the Committee of Foreign Investment in the US, or CFIUS.

These measures continued under Biden’s watch, with ever-tightening restrictions on China’s access to advanced chips and chipmaking tools, prompted by concerns that Beijing could leverage them to develop military technologies.