The answer to why Beijing isn’t supporting Donald Trump on taxes is that it doesn’t have to.
China’s leaders may claim that they are not inclined to give in to a bully, things its government has repeatedly called the Trump administration while. However, it also has a capability to do this far beyond any other nation on Earth.
China did had a sizable amount of revenue to the US before the price war started, but this only amounted to 2 % of its GDP, to place it in perspective.
Despite years of struggling to solve its own significant financial issues, including a real estate problems, excessive local bill, and persistent youth unemployment, the Communist Party would undoubtedly want not to be locked in a trade conflict with the US.
Despite this, the government has assured its citizens that it is well-positioned to withstand US attacks.
It also is aware that its own tariffs will undoubtedly hurt US exporters as well.
Trump has been making a claim to his supporters that it would be simple to impose tariffs on China, but this has been incredibly deceptive.
Beijing won’t give up.
Xi Jinping, the leader of China, told the visiting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday that his nation and the European Union should” jointly resist the unilateral bullying practices” of the Trump administration.
Sanchez countered by saying that China’s cooperation with Europe shouldn’t be hampered by its trade tensions with the US.
Their meeting took place in the Chinese capital shortly before Beijing once more imposed tariffs on US goods, despite the country’s declaration that it would not act on any further US tariff increases.
Next week, Xi will travel to Cambodia, Vietnam, and Malaysia. These are all nations that have experienced severe damage from Trump’s tariffs.
His ministers have been addressing South African, Saudi Arabia, and India counterparts and discussing increased trade cooperation.
China and the EU are reportedly in talks about possibly removing European tariffs on Chinese cars in exchange for a minimum price in order to stop a new round of dumping.
In essence, wherever you look, you can see that China has options.
And analysts claim that the two superpowers ‘ mutual tariff increases have already reached the point of halting much of their trade, making them almost useless.
Therefore, the tit-for-tat tariff increases in both directions have become more like symbolism.
Over the past two days, Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, has posted images of Chairman Mao on social media, including a clip from the Korean War when he declared to the US that” no matter how long this war lasts we will never yield.”
She added,” We are Chinese, and we are Chinese,” before going on to add her own comments. Provocations don’t bother us. We won’t fall.
You can tell when the Chinese government wheels out Chairman Mao that they are getting serious.