By John Ross    Source: People's Daily Online    Published: 2021-3-09

The most important thing the United States should do is to “just stop, drop the tariffs” on Chinese products, because these are irrational, John Ross, a senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, said in an interview with Shenzhen TV, adding that the irrational tariff policy of the Trump administration not only harmed China's interests, but also resulted in extremely high costs for American companies and consumers, and had a negative impact on the world economy.

John Ross (Photo/sztv.com.cn)

Commenting on questions about human rights raised by some Western journalists at a press conference by the Foreign Ministry of China on March 8, Ross said that when it comes to issues such as Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Tibet, some Western countries are not just making fake news, they are “inventing facts”.

According to Ross, issues regarding Xinjiang is an invention by the west. There is no genocide in Xinjiang. This is completely ridiculous lie.

He said this is typical of the United States. When the United States wants to integrating aggressive actions, it just invents things. In the 1960s, the U.S. invented the claim that the North Vietnamese ships attacked American warships and used this to justify the launch of the Vietnam War. There was a claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Later, it became true that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.

Ross emphasized that the current priority for the world is cooperation—fighting against COVID-19, the global economic recession, and coping with climate change together.

On the question of Hong Kong, Ross noted that people have to accept the “one country, two systems”. Some people in the west want to ignore the fact that when Hong Kong was returned to China, the agreement was “one country, two systems”. They want to remove the “one country” and just emphasize “two systems”, but this isn't what it was agreed from the fact that Hong Kong has always historically been part of China.

Regarding the electoral system in Hong Kong, he said some Western countries have expressed their concerns, but he believes that's an internal affair of China. “All countries that I know of have when you want to have office, you have to take oath of loyalty. It differs in different countries on exactly what you have to swear allegiance to. The president of the United States upon being inaugurated has to swear allegiance to the constitution of the United States. A member of the British parliament has to swear allegiance to the Queen.”

John Ross is Senior Fellow of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China.