Chinese, American anchors face off on TV over trade spat
Print Edition
CHINA said it is happy to see Americans and Chinese engage in “honest and rational” dialogue after a Chinese state TV anchor and a host from Fox Business Network took part in a live debate yesterday.
The roughly 16-minute showdown between China’s Liu Xin of English channel CGTN and Fox Business host Trish Regan was aired on Wednesday evening in the United States.
It is the first time that television hosts from China and the US were facing off live. The much-anticipated event had sparked widespread attention across the world.
Thousands of Chinese viewers, media and even economists tuned in to watch the rare debate.
Speaking at a regular news briefing in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he has been closely monitoring the encounter, which he said was more of a “dialogue between two (TV) anchors” than a debate.
“Under the circumstances of Sino-US relations, we would like to see people from all walks of life in China and the US engage in some open, honest and rational thinking and dialogue,” Lu told reporters.
The head-to-head took place at a time when China and the US are locked in a fierce trade war. Earlier this month, Washington slapped additional tariffs of up to 25 percent on US$200 billion of Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to retaliate with its own tariffs on goods imported from the US. These new Chinese tariffs will apply from tomorrow.
The verbal spat erupted last week when Liu, host of “The Point,” took offence to a description of China on the Trish Regan Primetime show, but while the anchors went after each other on Twitter, the on-air face-off was more diplomatic.
“There is high possibility of a trade deal only if the United States treats the Chinese government and negotiating team with respect and shows the willingness to talk without using outside pressure. Otherwise, we might be facing a prolonged period of problems for both sides,” Liu said responding to Regan’s questions about the ongoing trade war.
The two anchors, meanwhile, found some common ground on intellectual property theft.
“There is consensus among Chinese people that no country or individual can protect itself without intellectual property protection. Isolated cases do not mean that America is stealing or Chinese people are stealing,” Liu said.
Liu later told AFP that getting into a heated debate would not have been good for the American and Chinese people.
“I didn’t want to get into a catfight, people were expecting that,” Liu said.
Their previous exchanges had been more heated.
Liu slammed Regan for her “economic warmongering,” after the latter accused China of “stealing as high as US$600 billion in intellectual property” every year from the US.
Regan shot back immediately on her show saying “the Chinese are launching a full-scale information war against the United States of America and their newest target, me.”
On camera, the tone was much different, ending with a friendly exchange.
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