U.S. Treasury Secretary Besant said in an exclusive interview with Japanese media that China is the most imbalanced economy in modern world history. He stated that Beijing’s economic policy is, in essence, a job creation policy and that it is fundamentally different from those of Western democratic countries.
According to reports, after U.S. President Trump’s reciprocal tariff measures formally took effect on August 7, Besant was interviewed by Nikkei, the Japanese business daily, at the U.S. Treasury Department on the same day.
Besant said that dealing with China is “very difficult,” because China is a “non-market economy, and non-market economies have different goals.”
He expressed concern about China’s overproduction and the practice of exporting large quantities of products at extremely low prices. He said: “We believe much of the production is below cost. This is a job-creation program—they have employment goals. They have production targets that far exceed profit goals.”
Besant said: “China is the most imbalanced economy in modern world history. We believe many Chinese products sell below production cost. China’s manufacturing industry gets huge benefits from the government—in essence, it is a job creation policy. China’s economy is fundamentally different from that of Western countries and Asian democracies.”
He looked back at history and noted that the U.S. in the past had allied competitors economically and the Soviet Union as a military competitor. “China is a new presence; it is both our biggest economic competitor and our biggest military competitor. Non-market economy China has goals different from ours. We are committed to tackling very thorny issues.”