2018.05.2822:14:00UTC+00China Rejects U.S. Claims of Forced Technology Transfers

Chinese and U.S. diplomats clashed at the World Trade Organization on Monday over U.S. President Donald Trump's accusations that China steals American concepts, the subject of two lawsuits and a White House plan to impose heavy punitive levies on Chinese goods.

U.S. Ambassador Dennis Shea said “forced technology transfer” was most of the time an unwritten protocol for firms attempting to access China's growing marketplace, particularly if they were entering a partnership with a state-owned or state-directed Chinese company.

China's licensing and administrative rules coerced foreign companies to share technology if they wanted to engage in business, while government officials could take advantage of unclear investment rules to impose technology transfer requirements, he stated.

Shea told the WTO's dispute settlement body that the arrangement was not a rule of law and facts show that it is China's rules that allow the coercion.

China strongly repudiated the criticism, which has generated WTO disputes from both sides and a threat of a massive tariff from Trump.

China's Ambassador Zhang Xiangchen told the meeting that there is no forced technology transfer in China, adding that the U.S. argument was based on a “presumption of guilt”. He added that the U.S. Trade Representative's office had failed to come up with a single piece of evidence, and some of its claims were only speculation. He also said the USTR perceived Chinese M&A activity as a Chinese government conspiracy.