China and U.S. accuse each other of bullying at UN session

China accused the United States of wielding tariffs as a weapon of economic intimidation during an informal United Nations Security Council session in New York.

Chinese U.N. Ambassador Fu Cong said Washington was hiding behind the words “reciprocity and fairness” while rewriting the rules of world commerce to suit itself.

“The United States is playing a zero-sum game, overturning the international economic order through tariffs, putting U.S. interests above the common good, and pursuing hegemonic ambitions at the expense of every other country,” Fu told delegates.

He said Beijing had taken what he called “decisive countermeasures” when faced with “U.S. abuse of tariffs.”

The United States brushed off the hearing. A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the meeting “was a waste of Security Council members’ time” and a fresh example of China using multilateral bodies “to advance its economic, political and security interests.”

The spokesperson argued that while Beijing claims to champion open markets, it “dumps artificially low-priced goods, steals intellectual property, and implements unfair trade practices,” all while insisting it is still a developing nation. Washington, the official added, would continue to safeguard U.S. interests and push back against China’s efforts.

Florida Senator Rick Scott says China’s accusations are absurd

Senator Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, branded Beijing’s accusations “absurd” and called for immediate cuts to American funding for what he described as the “anti-American U.N.”

BREAKING: This is absurd. Rick Scott complains that his voters want border security right after he and his Republican colleagues shot down the strongest border security legislation in decades. Retweet to show off this Republican hypocrisy. pic.twitter.com/xrmD9Qs4zH

— Democratic Wins Media (@DemocraticWins) February 13, 2024

Hugh Dugan, National Security Council senior director during the early Trump administration, told Fox Business that, aside from Canada and China, every country hit by U.S. tariff “recalibration” was working quickly and constructively with Washington.

Dugan said the Chinese Communist Party “continues to bully and use its own people by subsidizing output with substandard wages” and doubted that China could “survive in a global economy without exploiting workers’ rights or stealing foreign technology.”

Beijing invited Wang Huiyao, founder and president of the Center for China and Globalization, to brief the council. Wang asserted that President Donald Trump’s tariff program amounted to a trade war “against the entire world.” The Geneva-based watchdog U.N. Watch says Wang’s think tank maintains close links to the Communist Party.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch, said it was “Orwellian” for China, “one of the world’s leading abusers of economic coercion and human rights,” to accuse others of bullying. He cited Beijing’s threats of sanctions on governments that recognize Taiwan, its retaliation against countries speaking up for Uyghur Muslims, and its pressure on neighbors in the South China Sea. “Beijing’s attempt to hijack the U.N. to attack the United States is not about peace or development,” Neuer said. “It is about protecting authoritarian power from accountability.”

Recently, Trump imposed duties on a range of imports, reserving the harshest penalties for China, where rates reached 145 percent. The Wall Street Journal has reported that a senior White House official now says those tariffs could drop to between 50 percent and 65 percent.

As the Security Council session adjourned, the world’s two largest economies remained divided on whether tariffs are instruments of fairness or weapons of coercion. Beijing cast itself as a defender of global trade norms under siege; Washington painted China as a serial violator using the U.N. stage to deflect criticism. Diplomats offered no timeline for further talks, leaving the dispute unresolved.

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