US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has taken advantage of the recent G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting to target China over the trade imbalance issue, urging G20 members to re-examine their terms of trade with China. First and foremost, rallying G20 members over this issue appears to be anattempt to shift blame away from Washington. After all, no one needs a reminder about the global economic shadow cast bythe Trump administration’s tariffs and war on Iran. In the US and, for that matter, certain European nations, it is politically convenient to blameChina’s export strengthfor their own industries’ structural challenges.However, doing somisses two important points. First,China doesn’t want to rely on exports to drive itseconomic growth. Second, instead of derailing the world’s sustainabledevelopment, China’s exports of goods and services contribute positivelytobuilding a durable globaleconomy.

In many ways, it is questionable to argue that China has deliberately pursueda massive trade surplus in its industrial policy.Beijing has demonstrated a clear political will to buy more from the rest of the world. China is one of the few countries worldwide that run a national-level trade expo focused on imports. As a matter of fact,discrepancy between an economy’s exports and imports is fundamentally driven by its savings and investment, rather than by tariff and industrial policies.

According to the World Bank, China’s gross domestic savings accounted for 43.3% of its GDP in 2024, the........

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