Beijing (AFP)

"Not afraid" of the trade war: Chinese President Xi Jinping descended into the arena on Friday, assuring that his country was ready to respond to the next salvos of America Donald Trump.

In a year and a half of confrontation with tariffs, the strong man of Beijing has very rarely pronounced publicly on the conflict which accentuates the economic slowdown of his country.

Changing tone Friday at the People's Palace, the huge seat of the Chinese parliament in Beijing: facing a group of foreign personalities, including former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Xi Jinping has taken sometimes anti-Western accents to denounce Washington's demands.

"We do not want to start a trade war but we are not afraid of it," said the secretary general of the ruling Communist Party.

"We will retaliate if necessary," he warned, as the United States threatens to impose new trade sanctions on Chinese products on December 15 if a "preliminary" agreement is not found by then. In the viewfinder of the Trump administration: electronics, like cell phones.

Chinese and Americans agreed last month to reach a "preliminary" deal, which would see Washington forego new sanctions, while Beijing buys agricultural products heavily from Uncle Sam.

The discussions, however, seem to be skating.

"If we do not find an agreement with China, I will simply increase customs tariffs even further," Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he accused the Chinese of not "doing their part" of the work to reach a compromise.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Beijing has invited US negotiators to visit China for a new round of talks, but the latter would first require the communist regime to make concessions.

- No more "humiliations" -

Beyond a possible preliminary agreement, Washington requires structural reforms from China: that Beijing commits itself to no longer subsidize its public enterprises, opens its public markets to foreign companies and stops forcing them to grant transfers technologies.

Without directly mentioning these requirements, Xi Jinping hinted that his regime would not be imposed. He promised that the country would continue its policy of "reform and openness" but that it would do so with caution, "as when stepping on stones while crossing the river".

China "is a big country, it's like a liner," he said. "We can not afford to make mistakes - if a ship like China capsizes, we will not be able to put it back."

In the process of China's economic opening, "the precondition is that the financial sovereignty of our country is guaranteed," he warned, before warning against a return to "humiliations" of the time foreign concessions.

"What we want is to restore our role and our place in the world and not relive the humiliation of the semi-colonial era," he said. "This time will not come back."

According to economist Diana Choyleva, of Enodo Economics, the words of the Chinese president "confirm that the Chinese will not move" in the negotiation.

"Donald Trump's style of negotiation and lack of trust (...) convinced (Xi Jinping) that there is no point in making concessions," she said.

In addition to the trade war, Chinese and Americans are opposed to the political crisis in Hong Kong. To the great anger of Beijing, the US Congress has just approved a text supporting Hong Kong protesters, at the risk of derailing the hard commercial negotiations.

Henry Kissinger, the architect of his country's rapprochement with China in the 1970s, said Thursday feared that the trade war could lead to a war in short.

"The First World War broke out after a relatively minor crisis," he said.

© 2019 AFP