World shows widespread concern over recent U.S. trade moves

The international community has shown widespread concern over recent U.S. moves on trade protectionism, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Monday.

The comments were made by leaders from Austria, the Netherlands, Singapore, the Philippines, Pakistan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as they paid visits to China to attend the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference in 2018.

During their meetings with Chinese leaders, they expressed their willingness to safeguard the free trade system, and promote the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment.

Spokesperson Geng Shuang told a daily news briefing that the remarks made by the leaders showed that the world recognized that unilateralism and protectionism did not work, and global cooperation and multilateral coordination were the way forward.

He said currently the international community paid high attention on the trade relations between China and the United States, as the issue was related to international rules, the multilateral system and economic globalization.

"U.S. actions on trade with China will harm not only China's interests, but also the interests of other countries," he said.

Geng said China stood ready to work with the international community to "fight against trade protectionism, support the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, safeguard the multilateral trading system, build an open world economy, and bring economic globalization on the track towards openness, inclusiveness, balance, and win-win results."