There was no word from either side on progress toward restarting conversations between the world's two largest economies, though President Donald Trump said he expected to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, next month at a G-20 meeting in Japan.

 

Dialogues over how to cut the huge, longstanding U.S. trade debt with China and resolve complaints over Beijing's methods for attaining advanced foreign technologies foundered earlier this month after Trump raised tariffs on billions of dollars of imports from China.

 

At a regular briefing Friday, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang accused American politicians he didn't name of 'fabricating various lies based on subjective presumptions and trying to mislead the American people.'

 

The China Daily, an English-language newspaper, reported U.S. expressions of issues about Chinese surveillance equipment maker Hikvision were for the self-serving aim of claiming the 'moral high ground' to stimulate Washington's political agenda.

 

'In this way, it is hoping to achieve the colonization of the global business world,' the newspaper stated.

 

Hikvision said in a statement Friday that it takes U.S. concerns about its business seriously and is working to make certain it complies with human rights standards.

 

Activists have always been recommending the U.S. and other countries to sanction China over repression of members of Muslim minority ethnic groups in the northwestern Xinjiang region, where an estimated 1 million people are being taken into custody in re-education camps.

 

The New York Times reported the U.S. Commerce Department might possibly put Hikvision on its 'entity list,' restraining its business with U.S. companies for its alleged role in supporting surveillance in Xinjiang. In its statement, the company said it had 'engaged with the U.S. government relating to all of this since last October.'

 

Hikvision said it had maintained former U.S. Ambassador-at-large Pierre-Richard Prosper of the firm Arent Fox to guide the company regarding human rights compliance. 'Over the past year, there have been many reports about ways that video surveillance products have been involved in human rights violations,' the statement said. 'We read every report seriously and are listening to voices from outside the company.'

 

In South Korea, officials said they were discussing security obstacles pertaining to its 5G, or fifth generation, cellphone networks with the U.S.

 

Officials in South Korea's Foreign Ministry and presidential office could not, however, confirm the report by the Chosun Ilbo newspaper that U.S. officials want Seoul to block a local wireless carrier that uses Huawei equipment for its 5G services from unspecified 'sensitive areas.'

 

Washington looks at Huawei, the world's leading supplier of telecom gear and No. 2 smartphone maker, a security threat. Huawei has sought to ease those concerns and has declined assertions that it would facilitate spying by Beijing.

 

It's not clear whether Seoul would allow potential U.S. demands to close imports of Huawei products at risk of triggering retaliation from China, its biggest trade partner.

 

A U.S. business group reported Friday that its members' operations in China are facing raising pressure from trade friction after the Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports, with plans to extend those duties to another $300 billion — basically all the goods America buys from China.

 

'The negative impact of tariffs is clear and hurting the competitiveness of American companies in China,' the American Chamber of Commerce in China and AmCham Shanghai said in announcing the results of a study of nearly 250 companies conducted May 16-20.

 

China has increased tariffs on $110 billion of U.S. products and has said it's prepared to do more to guard its national interest. The report said about 40 of the companies interviewed were being the subject of more inspections or slower customs clearance. Just over half have yet to experience any impact from such non-tariff retaliatory measures.

 

To cope, companies are centering more on the China market, it said, instead exporting to the U.S., and delaying or canceling investment decisions.

 

This article it originally posted on TRONSERVE.COM