As Trump return looms, China's Xi at APEC criticises protectionism

By Eduardo Baptista

LIMA (Reuters) - With Donald Trump's imminent return to the U.S. presidency looming over the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Friday that unilateralism and protectionism needed to be rejected in favour of economic globalization.

Xi's critique of protectionism at APEC offers a preview of how China will seek to position itself once Trump takes office in January.

Trump has pledged to impose tariffs on Chinese imports in excess of 60% but Beijing and Chinese companies are hoping that his protectionist policies will also irk U.S. allies in Europe and Asia - giving China an opening to increase its global influence and improve trade ties.

In a speech read out to business executives by Chinese commerce minister Wang Wentao on Friday at the APEC CEO Summit, Xi said that economic globalization was facing "countercurrents", without specifying any particular country or leader.

"The world has entered a new period of turmoil and change, unilateralism and protectionism are spreading, the fragmentation of the world economy has intensified," Xi said.

"Hindering economic cooperation under various pretexts, insisting on isolating the interdependent world, is reversing the course of history," he added.

Xi listed a series of recent measures the Chinese government has taken to attract foreign investment, including increasing the number of Chinese industries that can receive foreign investment, as well as unilateral visa exemptions to foreigners visiting China.

"China will implement more independent and unilateral opening-up policies, expand the network of high-standard free trade zones facing the world, and open even further the door into China," the Chinese leader said.

However, some analysts said that China's pitch as an alternative or counterbalance to a protectionist Trump-led United States has lost its shine compared to 2016, when Trump was first elected.

Ja Ian Chong, a political scientist at National University of Singapore, said that unlike 2016, there were now widespread concerns in the international community about how Chinese state subsidies to industrial sectors and their resulting overcapacity negatively affect other countries' economies.

"China is as protectionist as the U.S. might be, its economy is far less open today than it used to be," Chong said.

(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista in Lima; Editing by Angus MacSwan)