China has issued a stark warning to the global community in the midst of its ongoing trade war with Donald Trump.
Since April 2, the US president and China’s president Xi Jinping have been engaged in a heated exchange of tariffs. Trump initially imposed a series of reciprocal tariffs on trading partners worldwide.
Prior to this major announcement, a 20 percent tariff was already in place on goods from China, which was increased by 34 percent, totaling 54 percent on what has been termed ‘Liberation Day.’
China’s response was predictable. In addition to filing a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization, China announced retaliatory tariffs of their own, which included 15 percent on US farm products, 10 percent on crude oil and agricultural machinery, and 34 percent on all US goods.
In retaliation, Trump raised the tariff on Chinese imports to 104 percent, up from the previous 84 percent.
China countered by raising its retaliatory tariffs on US goods to 84 percent.
This back-and-forth has continued, with Trump escalating the tariff on China to 145 percent, and then 245 percent, while pausing tariffs for other countries for 90 days. Meanwhile, China increased tariffs on US goods to 125 percent and reduced exports of rare earth minerals.
Now, it seems that the global community may soon find itself embroiled in this conflict between the two superpowers, as China has declared its next step: threatening countries that forge trade deals with the US.
According to China, ‘resolute and reciprocal’ countermeasures will be enacted against any country that makes deals with Trump, with particular attention on Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, who have recently started talks with Washington.
“China firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests,” said the Chinese commerce ministry on Monday (April 21) when discussing Trump’s strategy to isolate Beijing.
“Appeasement will not bring peace, and compromise will not be respected … To seek one’s own temporary selfish interests at the expense of others’ interests is to seek the skin of a tiger, which will ultimately fail on both ends and harm others,” they added.
China further asserted: “Where the strong prey on the weak, all countries will become victims.”
This warning arrives as Trump mentioned that the US was engaged in discussions with China, suggesting the possibility of a ‘very good deal’ between the world’s two largest economies.
However, this is contentious as an article in the state-run publication, ChinaDaily.com, criticized the US for its avarice and for ‘playing the victim’.
The piece claimed that the US is ‘not getting ripped off by anybody’ but faces the real ‘problem’ of ‘living beyond its means.’
The article continued: “It consumes more than it produces. It has outsourced its manufacturing and borrowed money in order to have a higher standard of living than it’s entitled to based on its productivity.
“Rather than being ‘cheated’, the US has been taking a free ride on the globalization train. The US should stop whining about itself being a victim in global trade and put an end to its capricious and destructive behavior.
“Instead, it should commit itself to working with its trading partners to establish a fair, free and WTO-centered multilateral trading system that is in line with the times.”
Indeed, a tense situation…