China: US to blame for trade surplus

China on Thursday laid blame on the U.S. export restrictions for Beijing’s trade surplus with Washington ahead of President Trump’s announcement of plans to crack down on Chinese trade practices. 

“China will not sit idly to see its legitimate rights damaged and must take all necessary measures to resolutely defend its legitimate rights,” China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement. 

{mosads}The White House said in a statement on Wednesday that Trump will announce actions he has decided to take in the wake of the U.S. trade representative’s 301 investigation into “China’s state-led, market-distorting efforts to force, pressure, and steal U.S. technologies and intellectual property.”

Reuters reports that the U.S. tariffs, which will be imposed under Section 301 of the 1974 U.S. Trade Act, will take aim at high-tech Chinese goods. 

The Trump administration will also press Beijing on its $375 billion trade surplus. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying slammed reports of the move. 

“How many soybeans should China buy that are equal to one Boeing aircraft? Or, if China buys a certain number of Boeing aircraft should the U.S. buy an equal number of C919s?” Hua said, according to Reuters. 

China has threatened to retaliate against the move by targeting U.S. agriculture. 

Trump has ripped Chinese trade practices since the early days of the presidential campaign. 

“There are people who wish I wouldn’t refer to China as our enemy. But that’s exactly what they are. They have destroyed entire industries by utilizing low-wage workers, cost us tens of thousands of jobs, spied on our businesses, stolen our technology, and have manipulated and devalued their currency, which makes importing our goods more expensive, and sometimes impossible,” Trump said on the campaign trail in 2015.