This photo taken on Jan. 20, 2023 shows the U.S. Department of the Treasury in Washington, D.C., the United States. [Photo/Xinhua]

To call the China-U.S. economic ties a "rip-off" and pursue absolute reciprocity in trade goes against the most basic economic common sense, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday, urging the United States to end its trade war. 

Spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks in response to a question about U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's repeated claims that China's economy is overly reliant on exports and that the U.S. side seeks fair and reciprocal trade relations.

Addressing a daily press briefing, Mao said that the China-U.S. trade, as it is now, is the result of market forces with multiple factors at play, including the two countries' economic structures and trade policies as well as the position of the U.S. dollar.

China never seeks a trade surplus, and in reality, the United States has benefited significantly from trade with China, she added.

"If you look at the breakdown of statistics, the exports of China-based U.S. companies are also counted as China's trade surplus. The high-quality products at reduced cost exported by China to the United States have essentially raised the purchasing power of U.S. consumers, and created a huge amount of jobs in the United States, particularly in sectors such as transport, wholesale, retail and e-commerce," Mao said, adding that the United States continues to run a huge surplus in trade in services.

She noted that China-U.S. trade and economic ties benefit both sides. "If one had been ripping the other off, there is no way the ties would have come this far as we see today."

The spokesperson stressed that labeling the economic ties a "rip-off" and demanding absolute reciprocity defies basic economic logic, and those who do so are underestimating the judgement of U.S. companies and consumers.

"It's been years and years since the United States initiated the trade war against the rest of the world, yet it has not stopped U.S. trade deficit from going up and reaching 918.4 billion U.S. dollars last year," Mao said, noting that whether it's a tariff war or a trade war, they invariably start by hurting others before coming back to hurt the one who launched it.

It's time for the United States to learn its lesson and end this wrong practice, the spokesperson added.