Standing Strong Against Trump Tariffs, Beijing Warns That America Will Be Harmed More Than China

Communist China is digging deep into its lexicon of rhetorical flourishes, mocking, belittling, critiquing, and otherwise denouncing President Trump for hitting the Chinese with tariffs of 125 percent on everything while holding off for 90 days on huge tariff increases for the rest of the world. Left out of the party, the Chinese are not backing down, negotiating, or pleading for mercy via concessions and compromises, as are dozens of other countries. Beyond vows to stand up to American “bullying,” China’s national news agency, Xinhua, gave a lesson in American history going back to the disembarkation of the pilgrims from the Mayflower in 1620 by way of explaining why Mr. Trump is bent on slashing China’s trade surplus last year of $295.4 billion.“Beneath Washington’s relentless trade practices lies a deeper truth: the enduring legacy of a piratical past, now institutionalized as policy and disguised in rhetoric of fairness, rules and security,” a Xinhua commentary stormed. “The passengers aboard the Mayflower in 1620 — often mythologized as spiritual refugees — were, in reality, the first English colonists in North America, deeply embedded in Britain’s expanding imperial enterprise … built on violently seized land, justified through scripture and sustained by relentless extraction.”Updating that message, a commentary in the Chinese Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily warned that America, not China, would suffer. Mr. Trump’s “sweeping imposition of tariffs on imports from nearly all major trading partners has stirred a storm both domestically and internationally,” it said. “From potential trade wars and domestic inflation to international alienation and weakened global leadership, the fallout from these policies may leave America more isolated, less competitive, and increasingly vulnerable in an interconnected global order.” While China was blasting multiple tirades against Washington, stocks on Asian markets were shooting up on the first day after Mr. Trump retrenched on raising tariffs with America’s trading partners, long accused of holding down imports with inequitable tariff and non-tariff barriers.Most dramatically, share prices on Japan’s Nikkei’s stock price index rose 9.13 percent, the second-biggest leap in its history, after having fallen by 5 percent the day before on fears that a top-level negotiating team from Tokyo would not persuade Mr. Trump to go easy on such an important American ally. The Japanese were acutely aware, of course, that tough negotiations lay ahead on Japan’s trade surplus of $68.5 billion last year in trade with America. Japan’s Kyodo news agency quoted the senior economist at Mizuho Research and Technologies, Asuka Sakamoto, as saying the market “reflects investor relief” but warning, “What will be important are details of the upcoming negotiations and how tariff rates could be reduced as a result.” The story was much the same across Asian markets, notably that of America’s other northeast Asian ally, South Korea, where the Korean stock price index rose 6 percent, led by the country’s two big chip makers, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Seoul’s Yonhap news quoted an analyst at Daishin Securities, Lee Kyoung-min, as saying “concerns turned to relief” with the announcement of “a 90-day pause of reciprocal tariffs for countries other than China.”Many Koreans believed Mr. Trump was pursuing a skillful negotiating strategy. “It was a serious test to find out who his friends and his enemies were,” a Korean blogger analyzing the news said via YouTube. “It turned out only China is his enemy.” A Korean listening to this commentator told me she believed Mr. Trump had planned to impose, and then rescind, hefty tariff increases all along.In Washington, Mr. Trump indicated that he might tie tariff talks with South Korea and other allies to the costs of American troops defending them. “That’s unrelated to trade,” Yonhap quoted him as telling reporters at the White House, “but I think we’ll make it part of it.” Mr. Trump during his first presidency proposed South Korea pay $5 billion a year to cover America’s 28,500 troops and bases in the country, but Mr. Biden agreed on $1.1 billion a year.China was having none of it. “Using tariffs as a tool of extreme pressure for selfish gain,” the People’s Daily commentary said, “is a textbook example of unilateralism, protectionism, and economic bullying.”

Standing Strong Against Trump Tariffs, Beijing Warns That America Will Be Harmed More Than China

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