The US, not China, threatens the global trade system, China’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday, after US President Donald Trump’s administration called US support for Beijing’s joining the World Trade Organisation in 2001 a mistake.

WTO rules have proved ineffective in making China embrace a market-oriented trade regime, and the US “erred” in backing China’s entry to the trade body on such terms, the office of the US Trade Representative said last week.

Its report came as Trump weighs a series of trade actions against Beijing, including a decision in a Section 301 investigation into China’s alleged theft of intellectual property, expected in the next few weeks.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that since China joined the WTO, it had strictly followed the body’s rules, carried out its obligations as well as contributed to the development of the multilateral system.

Other countries have benefited from trade with China, which has stuck by the route of reform and opening up and has supported an open global economy, she added.

“I think everyone has seen that it’s precisely the unilateralist methods of the US, and the sounds it’s made on unilateralism, that are an unprecedented challenge to the multilateral trade system,” Hua told a regular news briefing.

China has sought to portray itself as a champion of global trade in the face of Trump’s “America First” policies, despite criticism from foreign businesses, and their governments, that many parts of its market are protected from foreign competition.

Critics also say Chinese industrial policies seek to assimilate and supplant foreign technology.