BEIJING - Blaming China will not solve problems in the United States or help presidential candidates win more votes, a Foreign Ministry official said on Friday.

"The US itself will never benefit from politicizing trade issues and promoting protectionism," said Xie Feng, director-general of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs of the Foreign Ministry.

The department is in charge of diplomatic affairs with 18 countries in North America and Oceania including the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the island countries in the South Pacific.

Xie made the remarks after he was asked about China bashing from US presidential candidates in an online interview, one in a series with a dozen senior Chinese diplomats co-hosted by the websites of People's Daily, China Daily, China News Agency and the Foreign Ministry.

Some of the presidential candidates have said that the US has suffered losses from economic and trade cooperation with China, and others claim that high unemployment in the US is caused by an undervalued yuan.

"Some of those who said so may not understand the real situation, but some others have ulterior motives to blame the 'scapegoat' and win votes for themselves," Xie said.

"China-US economic and trade cooperation are mutually beneficial and bring win-win results, which is a fact that is undeniable by anyone without prejudice," Xie said.

A Morgan Stanley report showed that 4 to 8 million jobs in the US are closely tied to Sino-US trade, and in the past 10 years US consumers have saved at least $600 billion by buying commodities made in China.

According to a report released in November by the US-China Business Council, 88 percent of US companies have made more or equal profits in China compared with those made in other countries.

The US is the biggest source of China's foreign investment. Statistics show that by the end of November, the US had more than 60,000 investment projects in China with an input totaling $67.4 billion.

"Capital and technology from the US have played a positive role in China's reform and opening up. The two economies are so closely interconnected that neither one can leave the other," Xie said.

According to Xie, the yuan has appreciated by 30 percent against the dollar since July 2005, while between 2005 and 2011 the unemployment rate in the US has been increasing.

It "shows there is no direct connection between RMB appreciation and lower unemployment in the US", Xie said.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney has pledged to designate China as a currency manipulator and pursue litigation against its "unfair trade practices".

Such practices will "only push the two countries to a 'trade war', which harms China but brings no profit to the US either", said Xie.

He added that blaming China will not help the US solve its problems.

"China has no intention to interfere into other country's internal affairs and never allows other countries to interfere into China's internal affairs and harm China's interests," Xie said.

"We hope the US can bear in mind the general picture of bilateral relations and people's long-term interests, view bilateral relations in an objective and rational way, so as to remove interference from the election and maintain the steady progress of the Sino-US relationship," Xie said.

The US presidential election campaign, which kicked off on Jan 3, will last until the national poll on Nov 6.

China Daily