Trump vs. China....a 'no win' for the USA .
China raises stakes over Trump tariffs
China appears to have bet that its own high threshold for pain will turn President Trump’s tariff gambit into a punishing lesson for the U.S.
The Hill: China seeks to leave the U.S. twisting in the wind.
Some Trump officials have conceded in private that they did not accurately predict China’s reaction to the president’s tariffs, The New York Times reports. Beijing on Thursday denied Trump’s suggestion that “active” negotiations are underway.
“China’s position is consistent, and we are open to consultations and dialogues, but any form of consultations and negotiations must be conducted on the basis of mutual respect and in an equal manner,” said Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yadong. “Any claims about the progress of China-U.S. trade negotiations are groundless as trying to catch the wind and have no factual basis.”
The president countered, “They had a meeting this morning,” declining to tell reporters to whom he was referring. “It doesn’t matter who ‘they’ is. We may reveal it later, but they had meetings this morning, and we’ve been meeting with China,” Trump added Thursday.
The Chinese “have much more tolerance for economic pain, and a greater ability to weather this ratcheting up,” Nicholas Mulder, an economic historian at Cornell University, told the Times.
China plans to help its struggling businesses with targeted measures in the face of “increased external shocks,” according to a readout of a meeting chaired Friday by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
But there may be limits. As costs rise for some industries, China is exempting some U.S. goods from 125 percent tariffs, Bloomberg News and Reuters report today. Ethane and LPG are mentioned as options. China has not yet communicated publicly about any exemptions.
Beijing recently canceled 12,000 metric tons of U.S. pork purchases and returned Boeing planes, infuriating Trump.
“Xi somehow, notwithstanding all the bad things China does, is coming out of the last week looking like a winner and a statesman,” a former House senior national security aide told The Hill.
Since an earlier trade standoff during Trump’s first term, Xi has intensified his grip on power and invested in authoritarian tools, including the world’s most sophisticated systems for censorship and surveillance, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Chinese leader wants to harden his country specifically for a confrontation with the U.S., urging officials to engage in what he calls “extreme scenario thinking,” according to the Journal.
Trump, whose second term marks 100 days next week, is not in the same position. His job approval on a collection of economic issues has fallen, according to the latest Fox News poll, one of several such surveys this week. Financial markets, consumers, major companies, farmers and small businesses indicate they’re fed up with White House-initiated economic turmoil and global trade uncertainty.
“This game of chicken has done nothing but enable Xi Jinping to boost his standing in and outside China, while the United States appears uninformed and unmoored,” Elizabeth Economy, a former Commerce Department official with the Biden administration, told the Times.
China appears to have bet that its own high threshold for pain will turn President Trump’s tariff gambit into a punishing lesson for the U.S.
The Hill: China seeks to leave the U.S. twisting in the wind.
Some Trump officials have conceded in private that they did not accurately predict China’s reaction to the president’s tariffs, The New York Times reports. Beijing on Thursday denied Trump’s suggestion that “active” negotiations are underway.
“China’s position is consistent, and we are open to consultations and dialogues, but any form of consultations and negotiations must be conducted on the basis of mutual respect and in an equal manner,” said Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yadong. “Any claims about the progress of China-U.S. trade negotiations are groundless as trying to catch the wind and have no factual basis.”
The president countered, “They had a meeting this morning,” declining to tell reporters to whom he was referring. “It doesn’t matter who ‘they’ is. We may reveal it later, but they had meetings this morning, and we’ve been meeting with China,” Trump added Thursday.
The Chinese “have much more tolerance for economic pain, and a greater ability to weather this ratcheting up,” Nicholas Mulder, an economic historian at Cornell University, told the Times.
China plans to help its struggling businesses with targeted measures in the face of “increased external shocks,” according to a readout of a meeting chaired Friday by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
But there may be limits. As costs rise for some industries, China is exempting some U.S. goods from 125 percent tariffs, Bloomberg News and Reuters report today. Ethane and LPG are mentioned as options. China has not yet communicated publicly about any exemptions.
Beijing recently canceled 12,000 metric tons of U.S. pork purchases and returned Boeing planes, infuriating Trump.
“Xi somehow, notwithstanding all the bad things China does, is coming out of the last week looking like a winner and a statesman,” a former House senior national security aide told The Hill.
Since an earlier trade standoff during Trump’s first term, Xi has intensified his grip on power and invested in authoritarian tools, including the world’s most sophisticated systems for censorship and surveillance, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Chinese leader wants to harden his country specifically for a confrontation with the U.S., urging officials to engage in what he calls “extreme scenario thinking,” according to the Journal.
Trump, whose second term marks 100 days next week, is not in the same position. His job approval on a collection of economic issues has fallen, according to the latest Fox News poll, one of several such surveys this week. Financial markets, consumers, major companies, farmers and small businesses indicate they’re fed up with White House-initiated economic turmoil and global trade uncertainty.
“This game of chicken has done nothing but enable Xi Jinping to boost his standing in and outside China, while the United States appears uninformed and unmoored,” Elizabeth Economy, a former Commerce Department official with the Biden administration, told the Times.
