Tokyo, Dec. 15 (Jiji Press)–The United States is resolved to take all possible means to prevent China from continuing to ignore trade rules, a visiting senior U.S. diplomat said in an interview with Jiji Press on Wednesday.

“We will use whatever tools are at our disposal” to have China adhere to global trade rules as it has been benefiting from them, Jose Fernandez, US undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, said.

With Chinese companies making profits thanks to industrial subsidies and preferential tax treatment by the Chinese government, Fernandez said that such an unfair competitive environment “comes back to our workers not just in the United States but in Japan and elsewhere.”

Also in the interview, Fernandez said he supports the decision by Japan to welcome a new chip factory that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. will built in Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan.

In November, TSMC announced the factory construction plan. The Japanese government plans to provide several hundred billion yen to cover the construction costs.

“I think the diversification of supply chains is a critical aspect of what we’re trying to promote,” Fernandez said. “And we’re glad to see that Japan is doing it” at a time when the diversification of supply chains has become an urgent issue amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, he said.

He thus welcomed the moves by Japan and Taiwan after the U.S. government banned exports of state-of-the-art semiconductor-manufacturing equipment to China apparently as part of its efforts to form a coalition to counter the world’s second-largest economy.

The U.S. government has decided not to send a diplomatic mission to the Beijing Winter Olympics next February, citing alleged human rights violations by China.

Fernandez said the United States will not seek to influence Japan on its own decision, saying, “That is a purely sovereign decision of the government of Japan.”