BEIJING, Dec 10: A senior Chinese trade official urged the United States to stop politicising commercial issues, state media said on Monday, at the start of a week of high-level Sino-US economic talks.

The United States should resolve frictions with China through dialogue on an equal footing rather than seeking to politicise them, said Vice Commerce Minister Chen Deming, according to the China Daily.

“We should avoid unreasonably and unilaterally blaming the other side,” he was quoted as saying.

He warned that a trend for Americans to politicise trade issues could escalate as next year’s presidential election approaches.

Chen was speaking ahead of the two-day Strategic Economic Dialogue, which begins on Wednesday and brings a senior US delegation headed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to China.—AFP