US 'remedy' will damage global economy: Economist

The Section 301 investigation, a protective measure to help companies from the United States protect their intellectual property, is only an excuse for the US to irrationally change its trade deficit with China and block the country's high-end manufacturing development, an economist said.

Chen Wenling, chief economist at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said the US has used its currency as a tool to become a global credit currency, and has taken this advantage to transfer its manufacturing industries to other countries, including China, while purchasing products from around the world at low prices.

Such a method has helped the US gain a large number of physical goods and commodities at low prices to support its high consumption habit, high level of support in certain sectors, including education and military services, as well as maintain low cost business operations and low inflation within the country, she said.

"China's contribution to world economic growth has exceeded 30 percent over the past five years," Chen said. "Without China, there would have been no recovery of the world economy and there would have been no recovery in the US after the global economy was hit by the financial crisis of the century that started in the US in 2008."

Chen said the US apparently ignored China's contribution, and seeks to reduce the trade deficit between the two countries by adopting unilateral trade protectionism. "The US has taken the wrong remedy. It will damage the global economy and hurt the US economy itself, " Chen said.