BEIJING, May 21 (Xinhua) -- The United States' recent bullying caprices against China on trade are intended to implement the America First policy, reflecting a deeper competition between the two countries, an international relations expert said in an interview with Xinhua.

The heart of such competition is how Washington views China's growing power and how it responds, said Qiu Yuanping, a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and deputy director of the Committee for Liaison with Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Overseas Chinese of the CPPCC National Committee.

By escalating trade friction with China unilaterally, the U.S. administration is seeking to realize the goal of America First by adopting protectionism on trade, investment and technology, intentionally playing up the issue of trade deficit reduction and using trade imbalance as an excuse to sell so-called "reciprocal trade," he noted.

It is out of the needs of domestic politics that the U.S. administration keeps provoking disputes on trade issues by means of extreme pressure, Qiu said.

Refusing to accept China's rise, Washington has taken a series of self-serving moves to suppress China's development and its capacity to develop high-tech industries, Qiu noted.

In this era of globalization, countries are closely connected with one another through trade.

Noting the United States imposed additional tariffs on 50 billion and 200 billion U.S. dollars worth of Chinese imports, Qiu said that more than 70 percent of the affected products are intermediate goods and investment goods.

U.S. tariff hikes on Chinese goods will do harm to others and itself. If every country tackles trade disputes by raising tariffs, the world economy would not be able to develop healthily, he said.

Commenting on Washington's recent restrictions on Huawei, Qiu said that the United States had violated the laws of economics as it refused to remove its restrictive measures, defied the business rules of fair competition and forced China to use non-market means to cut trade deficit in goods.

Qiu maintained that the U.S. administration had made an erroneous judgement on the international situation. Holding pessimistic attitudes about itself, Washington curtly identified competition with major powers as the primary threat to its national security, taking China as a target or scapegoat.

Labelling China as its "strategic competitor" has created abnormal turbulence on the China-U.S. relations, raising worries among the people of the two countries and the international community, he noted.

"Relations among great powers are crucial to ensure strategic stability in the world. The China-U.S. ties should advance continuously and steadily," Qiu said. "Emotional miscalculations and confrontations should be ruled out."