Beijing on Monday downplayed the unprecedented fallout from this year’s APEC summit, which for the first time ever failed to issue a joint statement after US-China trade tensions boiled over. Clashes between the world’s top two economies over the rules of global trade blocked agreement on a formal written declaration by the 21 nations represented at the Port Moresby meeting.
Washington had pressed for leaders to issue what amounted to a denunciation of the World Trade Organization and a call for its wholesale reform — a step too far for Beijing, which would likely suffer in the event of any change to trade rules.
But China on Monday chose instead to focus on the “positive results” of the summit.