China opposes US tariffs on India; says compromise only 'emboldens the bully'

New Delhi: China on Thursday firmly opposed the Trump administration's whopping 50 per cent tariff on India with Chinese envoy Xu Feihong saying silence or compromise only "emboldens the bully" in the face of such action.

The Chinese ambassador said the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China for the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation will be very important and China is attaching great importance to the trip.

In an address at an event, Xu said India and China are "double engines" of economic growth in Asia and both sides should jointly ensure international justice in the face of disruption in the global trading system.

"The US has imposed tariffs of up to 50 per cent on India and even threatened for more. China firmly opposes it," Xu said.

"In the face of such acts, silence or compromise only emboldens the bully. China will firmly stand with India to uphold the multilateral trading system with the WTO (World Trade Organisation) at its core," he said.

The relations between New Delhi and Washington are on a downturn after US President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods including a 25 per cent additional duties for India's purchase of Russian crude oil.

The envoy said China would welcome more Indian commodities to enter the Chinese market, adding India has a competitive edge in IT, software and biomedicine, while China is seeing rapid expansion in the fields of manufacturing, infrastructure and new energy.

Xu was speaking at the conference titled, 'SCO Summit: Resetting India-China relations' which was jointly organised by think tanks, Chintan Research Foundation and Centre for Global India Insights.

On the India-China border issue, Xu said it is a very important part of the relationship and that it should be looked at from a long-term perspective.

"We should not define the border issue as the relationship between our two countries," he said.

"The border issue is on one side and the cooperation of our two countries is on the other side. So these two important issues should be advanced in parallel," he said.

"We will work on 'early harvest' on the border issues," he said, adding a 10-point consensus was reached during Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi's visit to India this week.

Asked about India's challenge of cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan, the envoy said Pakistan is also a "victim of terrorism" and that joint efforts are needed to combat the menace.

On the tariff issue, the ambassador said the US has long benefited from free trade but now it is using tariffs as a "bargaining chip" to demand "exorbitant prices" from various countries.

China and India can strengthen cooperation and take the lead to help developing countries overcome difficulties and safeguard fairness in the international system, he said.

"The Chinese side welcomes more Indian enterprises to invest in China. It is also hoped that the Indian side could provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for the Chinese enterprises in India, so as to promote common development of industries and benefit the people of the two," he said.

Later talking to reporters, Xu said everybody is paying great attention to the upcoming visit of PM Modi to China.

"This visit will be a very important event not only for the SCO but also for the bilateral relationship between our two countries.

"The working group from China and India [is] working very hard to prepare for this visit, make it a successful one and from our side, we attach great importance to this visit and I believe it will be a successful visit," he said.

PM Modi will travel to the Chinese city of Tianjin for the SCO summit to be held on August 31 and September 1.