Exclusive | Former top US trade negotiator Charlene Barshefsky says China deviated from its commitments, paving way for trade war

This year marks four decades of normalisation of ties between China and the United States but the anniversary has been overshadowed by an unprecedented trade war and tensions over security and ideology. To commemorate the event, the South China Morning Post is publishing a series of stories throughout the year taking a deeper look at how the relationship between the two nations has evolved. Here, former US trade representative Charlene Barshefsky shares her views on China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation and the US policy of engagement with China.

China’s backsliding on market reform and its trade practices in the past decade is “very disturbing”, said Charlene Barshefsky, the former US trade representative who opened the door to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for China.

In a wide-ranging interview about China’s economic growth and relations with Washington, Barshefsky blamed Beijing’s deviation from market principles and inaction by previous US administrations for helping to lead to the current impasse.

“China has adopted an alternative path that simply seeks to treat its market in the way in which it wants regardless of the rules or commitments made and therefore impinges on the rights of China's trading partners regardless of the rights that they have,” Barshefsky said, speaking of China’s economic path since the mid-2000s.

“This is a very disturbing outcome not in China's interests, as we see China's economy was slowing before all of this trade stuff happened.”

On January 1, China and the United States witnessed the 40th anniversary of their diplomatic ties, which have grown to become the world’s most important bilateral relations.