While many nations are scrambling to strike tariff deals with Trump, China is standing up to him, hoping to turn “crisis into opportunity.”
Within 48 hours of Trump’s market-hammering announcement of tariffs on countries across the world, the world’s second-largest economy swiftly retaliated with its own punitive measures on US goods and firms.
Then, after the US president vowed to ratchet up tariffs again on Monday, Beijing once again vowed to hold the line. “The US threat to escalate tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake,” its Commerce Ministry said a statement.
The threat “once again exposes the blackmailing nature of the US,” the statement said. “China will never accept it. If the US insists on its own way, China will fight to the end.”
Beijing’s defiance is part of what has appeared to be a carefully calibrated confidence from a Chinese government that’s decided to position itself an oppositional force standing up to what it calls “unilateral bullying” from the US.
Over the weekend, Beijing telegraphed a clear message for its domestic audience and foreign countries: China is well prepared to weather a trade war – and come out stronger on the other side.
“US tariffs will have an impact (on China), but ‘the sky won’t fall,’” a commentary in the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece People’s Daily said Sunday.
“Since the US initiated the (first) trade war in 2017 – no matter how the US fights or presses – we have continued to develop and progress, demonstrating resilience – ‘the more pressure we get, the stronger we become,’” read the commentary, which was also on the front page of the paper’s Monday edition.
With the “strong leadership” of China’s Communist Party and the country’s “institutional advantages,” China was “sure to turn crisis into opportunity and move steadily into the future,” the commentary said.
Trump on Wednesday unveiled an additional 34% tariff on all Chinese goods imported into the US, bringing кракен даркнет duties on all Chinese imports to the US to well over 54% when existing tariffs are taken into effect. Beijing hit back Friday with its own baseline 34% tariffs on all American imports, as well as other measures, including export controls on rare earth minerals and trade restrictions on specific US companies.
On Monday, the US president threatened to significantly ratchet up the trade war between the world’s two largest economies by slapping an additional 50% tariffs on Chinese imports midweek if Beijing doesn’t remove its retaliatory tariffs by Tuesday.
The American president also said China’s “requested meetings” with the US would be canceled.