No civilisation superior, says Xi in veiled attack on Donald Trump

President Xi Jinping. Pic/AFP

Beijing: In a veiled attack on his US counterpart Donald Trump after he raised tariffs on Chinese products, President Xi Jinping on Wednesday said it is "foolish" to believe in "superiority of civilisations" as countries cannot go into isolation and close their doors from the rest of the world.

Xi made the comments at the opening session of the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations being held here, his first comments after trade war between the US and China escalated after Trump last Friday increased the import duty on Chinese products.

China retaliated by slapping tariffs on $60 billion worth of US imports. "Civilisations will lose vitality if countries go back to isolation and cut themselves off from the rest of the world," Xi said.

Stating that no civilisation is superior to the other, Xi, also the General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China, said, "It is foolish to believe that one's race and civilisation are superior to others, and it is disastrous to wilfully reshape or even replace other civilisations." Xi also called the Asian countries to defend globalisation, which was under threat from Trump's "America-first" policies.

"I hope all Asian nations will jointly promote economic globalisation that is open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all, and work together to eliminate poverty and backwardness in some nations," he said, adding that people of Asia expect open, integrated Asia.

India to benefit from trade war: report

America's year-long trade war with China is pushing US companies to source more from GSP, a group of American companies and trade associations countries such as India, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Turkey, a report said on Tuesday, warning that cancelling GSP benefits to India would only help China. The GSP is designed to promote economic development by allowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated beneficiary countries like India.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates