China said Monday it would seek backing for free trade and multilateralism at the G20 summit this week as it denounced protectionism while it fights a tariffs war with the United States.

A meeting between Xi Jinping and his Donald Trump on the sidelines of the gathering in Osaka, Japan has fuelled hopes for a truce in the increasingly damaging standoff between the world's top two economies.

"Unilateralism and protectionism has damaged global growth... undermined global value chains and dampened market sentiment," Zhang Jun, the Chinese assistant minister of foreign affairs, said at a briefing to preview Xi's attendance at the summit.

"China will work with others at the G20 to firmly uphold multilateralism and an open, rule-based global trading order," Zhang said.

But Japan, the European Union and other trading partners have in the past echoed US complaints about the alleged theft of intellectual property and lack of a level playing field for foreign investors in China.

Any attempts to build a united front with China will be tempered by these concerns.

Negotiations to resolve the trade war stalled last month resulting in both sides exchanging steep tariffs on hundreds of billions in exports.

Chinese vice minister for commerce Wang Shouwen said teams from both sides are now "discussing the next step for communication" ahead of the Xi-Trump meeting.

The two should make compromises and any talks between China and the US have to be based on "mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit and comply with WTO rules", Wang said.

The two leaders are also expected to discuss the fate of Chinese tech giant Huawei, which has suffered a heavy blow after the Trump administration banned US firms from working with it, citing espionage fears.

Wang urged the US to remove "inappropriate and discriminatory" barriers against Chinese companies, saying such moves jeopardise the interests of both Chinese and US companies.

The planned meeting comes a week after Xi visited nuclear-armed North Korea, and analysts said any influence he may have on Pyongyang's isolated leader could be used as leverage to win consensions from Trump.

Zhang declined to confirm whether North Korea will be on the agenda for the Trump-Xi head-to-head, saying they were still "finalising the details".

He also said China will "not allow" a discussion on Hong Kong at the G20 even as Washington said Trump plans to raise the city's mass protests in his meeting with Xi.

Protectionism slammed as Southeast Asian leaders rally to trade pact
Bangkok (AFP) June 23, 2019 - Southeast Asian leaders made an impassioned plea against protectionism at a regional summit in Bangkok Sunday, warning that a dragging US-China trade spat could hammer their export-led economies.

Tit-for-tat tariffs between Washington and Beijing have cast a dark cloud over global growth forecasts and experts warn any drop-off in spending by the world's two biggest economies is likely to hit Southeast Asia hard.

Regional leaders are alarmed over "the unabating tide of protectionism", according to the final statement of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit that closed Sunday in Bangkok.

"The winds of protectionism are hurting our multilateral trading system," Thailand's junta leader-turned-premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha said.

He added the bloc would carry their trade conflict concerns to a G20 meeting in Japan next week.

Leaders also called for urgency in concluding talks on a China-led trade pact this year, which once inked will be the world's biggest.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) includes all 10 ASEAN economies, plus India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

"It (RCEP) will help off-set any impact from the ongoing trade conflict," said Prayut.

The pact is seen as a mechanism for China to draft the rules of Asia-Pacific trade, following a US retreat from the region as it withdrew from another trade pact at the start of President Donald Trump's administration.

But progress has stuttered in recent months, with India digging in over fears cheap Chinese goods could flood its massive consumer markets.

Other issues, including dispute settlement and the exclusion of certain goods, still need to "ironed out", said a Malaysian Foreign Ministry official Sunday.

"We've missed the target to sign RCEP for quite a number of years already," Muhammad Shahrul Ikram Yaakob told reporters.

- Splits over Rohingya -

A controversial plan to repatriate the persecuted Rohingya minority and ongoing tussles in the disputed South China Sea were also tackled by leaders at the summit, which Thailand is chairing this year.

ASEAN leaders often put out an image of unity during the annual summits.

But the forum has been criticised for allowing diplomatic niceties to outweigh concrete action on the sharpest problems facing the region.

One of those is the return of Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar from squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh, where more than 740,000 have fled since a 2017 army crackdown on the stateless minority.

Malaysia has been the bloc's most outspoken member on the issue and it called for "citizenship" to be a cornerstone of any repatriation plan.

That flies in the face of Myanmar's official policy, which denies the Rohingya full citizenship and the accompanying rights, instead labelling them "Bengalis" -- illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

ASEAN has come under fire for suggesting the refugees will repatriate within two years. Virtually none have volunteered to return to Myanmar so far, citing safety concerns and lack of citizenship.

A final statement from the weekend summit said ASEAN leaders supported Myanmar's efforts to "facilitate the voluntary return of displaced persons in a safe, secure and dignified manner".

The statement did not include the term Rohingya.

Disputes in the flashpoint South China Sea also emerged at the summit, where the Philippines protested Beijing's sweeping claims in the resource-rich waterway.

Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte said he was "disappointed" that a much-delayed code of conduct between ASEAN countries and China has seen little progress.

Without such a blueprint there was a greater chance "for miscalculations that may spiral out of control," he added.

A "Bangkok Declaration" on combatting marine waste was also endorsed at the weekend summit, though environmentalists argued it does not do enough to reduce the region's mounting plastic problem.

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