U.S. leads world in economic coercion

Cartoon by Ma Hongliang.

The U.S. has initiated yet another baseless smear campaign against China, rallying several countries to accuse China of "economic coercion." This has been used as an excuse to take measures targeting China.

However, no country is more deserving of accusations of economic coercion than the U.S. The U.S. government has a well-established track record of engaging in economic coercion and abuse of long-arm jurisdiction.

Under the guise of strengthening national security, the U.S. passed the CHIPS and Science Act, prohibiting subsidized chipmakers from expanding chip production capacity in China for 10 years. Meanwhile, it has pressured its allies to restrict semiconductor exports to China, abused national power to unreasonably suppress Chinese companies like Huawei (thereby disrupting the free market), and leveraged its financial hegemony to arbitrarily impose sanctions against governments, companies, and individuals of other countries.

The U.S. is the No. 1 player in imposing economic coercion worldwide. It needs to address its actions that conflict with market economy principles and fair competition, actions that also damage the international economic and trade system, and threaten the stability of global industrial and supply chains.