Open this photo in gallery Xiangchen Zhang, China's ambassador to the World Trade Organization, looks on before the start of the General Council meeting at the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 26, 2018. DENIS BALIBOUSE/Reuters

The United States is demonizing China and attacking its economic model to divert attention from itself, but China will never bow to U.S. efforts to tie its hands with a new set of trade rules, Beijing’s envoy to the World Trade Organization said on Thursday.

“The U.S. is seeking to divert the attention of the international community and ease the heat on itself,” Ambassador Zhang Xiangchen said in a written comment to Reuters.

“Of course, and perhaps in the long run, the U.S. might be in an illusion that such tactic could force China to bow down, and tailor-make a set of ‘international rules’ specifically for China, aimed to tie up China’s hands and ultimately contain our development.”