China’s foreign minister calls for the U.S. to remove tariffs and sanctions

China’s foreign minister calls for the U.S. to remove tariffs and sanctions

BEIJING “” China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday called on the new U.S. administration to stop the "suppression" of Chinese technology companies, as he laid out conditions for U.S.-China cooperation going forward.Citing national security concerns, former U.S. President Donald Trump sanctioned dozens of Chinese companies in the last three years.Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is one of the most prominent companies that suffered from those orders, falling from the number one smartphone vendor globally to sixth place last year as a result of the sanctions.China would like the U.S. to remove tariffs and sanctions on companies, and "abandon irrational suppression of China's technological progress, so as to create necessary conditions for China-U.S. cooperation," Wang said, according to an official English translation shared by the foreign ministry.

Wang also called for the U.S. to support international Chinese students and remove restrictions on cultural groups and media outlets in America. He was speaking at a forum in Beijing with the theme "Bringing China-U.S. Relations Back to the Right Track."Tensions between the two countries accelerated under the Trump administration, which sought to use levies and blacklists to address longstanding business complaints about China's lack of intellectual property protection, requirements for forced technology transfer and