China should stand firm against President Trump’s fire and fury

China Plus Published: 2018-04-07 09:46:54
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By Wang Shanshan

U.S. President Donald Trump has been surrounded by fire and fury, willingly or otherwise, since taking office. He looks to be at war with the Cabinet, his White House advisers, and lawmakers. And when he's not busy fighting them, he's battling corporate America, the media, foreign countries, and international organizations.

But right now, he seems to have focused his attention on starting a trade war with China.

National flags of China and the U.S. [File photo: IC]

National flags of China and the U.S. [File photo: IC]

The first shots were fired in March when President Trump started the process of sharply raising tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, and then granting most countries exceptions – but not China. This was followed by the release on Tuesday of a proposed list of products subject to additional tariffs of up to 25 percent, covering imports from China worth some 50 billion U.S. dollars.

Less than 11 hours later, China shot back, with its own list of 106 products imported from the United States worth 50 billion dollars that will be subject to an additional 25 percent tariff. On Thursday, the U.S. President announced that he had asked his trade representative to consider 100 billion U.S. dollars of additional tariffs on imports from China.

China's response to President Trump's latest move was to remind the United States that it was ready to fight "at any cost" and take "comprehensive countermeasures," in statements made by the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

These actions have happened at a dizzying speed, which has surprised most observers.

What will China do in the face of someone as “deliberately provocative” as President Trump, someone “so willing to pick fights that stir his supporters, rile his opponents, and divert public attention”, as portrayed in TIME magazine?

China has made full preparations and will fight back if the US imposes 100 billion US dollars’ worth of additional tariffs on Chinese imports, said Gao Feng, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce at the press conference, April 6, 2018. [Photo: mofcom.gov.cn]

China has made full preparations and will fight back if the US imposes 100 billion US dollars’ worth of additional tariffs on Chinese imports, said Gao Feng, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce at the press conference, April 6, 2018. [Photo: mofcom.gov.cn]

Throughout the escalation in tensions, China has been clear about what it intends to do. It will not sit quietly to "listen and observe", as some international observers seemed to assume it would. China has made it clear on many occasions that it doesn't want a trade war, but if it is forced to fight, it will fight to the end, as the old saying goes, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."

Trade threats might be an effective weapon to wield against some countries, but they don't work when you're coming up against China, home to world's second largest economy. Trade relationships embody the complex interplay between economic resources, industry capabilities, trade policies, and legal frameworks and mechanisms, each of which has their own long history of development. Trade is not a game to be played the way you play poker.

President Trump says he won't back down until the gap between the value of U.S. imports and exports with China has dramatically narrowed. China won't back down if the United States continues to target it with unilateral trade sanctions in opposition to international trade rules and mechanisms.

China doesn't want to see jobs lost at home. Nor does it want to see the hundreds of thousands of people in the United States who grow soybeans, raise pigs, and build cars and airplanes lose their jobs. And no one wants to see financial markets on either side of the Pacific plunged into instability.

It has been said that, in war, no plan extends with any certainty beyond the start of the battle. Trade wars are no different. The United States should use the 60-day window to pull back from the brink and find a way forward to work with China.  

(Wang Shanshan is a current affairs commentator at CRI and CGTN and former Washington bureau chief of CRI, with ten years of research on China-US relations. )

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LU Xiankun Professor LU Xiankun is Managing Director of LEDECO Geneva and Associate Partner of IDEAS Centre Geneva. He is Emeritus Professor of China Institute for WTO Studies of the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) and Wuhan University (WHU) of China and visiting professor or senior research fellow of some other universities and think tanks in China and Europe. He also sits in management of some international business associations and companies, including as Senior Vice President of Shenzhen UEB Technology LTD., a leading e-commerce company of China. Previously, Mr. LU was senior official of Chinese Ministry of Commerce and senior diplomat posted in Europe, including in Geneva as Counsellor and Head of Division of the Permanent Mission of China to the WTO and in Brussels as Commercial Secretary of the Permanent Mission of China to the EU. Benjamin Cavender Benjamin Cavender is a Shanghai based consultant with more than 11 years of experience helping companies understand consumer behavior and develop go to market strategies for China. He is a frequent speaker on economic and consumer trends in China and is often featured on CNBC, Bloomberg, and Channel News Asia. Sara Hsu Sara Hsu is an associate professor from the State University of New York at New Paltz. She is a regular commentator on Chinese economy. Xu Qinduo Xu Qinduo is CRI's former chief correspondent to Washington DC, the United States. He works as the producer, host and commentator for TODAY, a flagship talk show on current affairs. Mr. Xu contributes regularly to English-language newspapers including Shenzhen Daily and Global Times as well as Chinese-language radio and TV services. Lin Shaowen A radio person, Mr. Lin Shaowen is strongly interested in international relations and Chinese politics. As China is quite often misunderstood in the rest of the world, he feels the need to better present the true picture of the country, the policies and meanings. So he talks a lot and is often seen debating. Then friends find a critical Lin Shaowen criticizing and criticized. George N. Tzogopoulos Dr George N. Tzogopoulos is an expert in media and politics/international relations as well as Chinese affairs. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre International de Européenne (CIFE) and Visiting Lecturer at the European Institute affiliated with it and is teaching international relations at the Department of Law of the Democritus University of Thrace. George is the author of two books: US Foreign Policy in the European Media: Framing the Rise and Fall of Neoconservatism (IB TAURIS) and The Greek Crisis in the Media: Stereotyping in the International Press (Ashgate) as well as the founder of chinaandgreece.com, an institutional partner of CRI Greek. David Morris David Morris is the Pacific Islands Trade and Investment Commissioner in China, a former Australian diplomat and senior political adviser. Harvey Dzodin After a distinguished career in the US government and American media Dr. Harvey Dzodin is now a Beijing-based freelance columnist for several media outlets. While living in Beijing, he has published over 200 columns with an emphasis on arts, culture and the Belt & Road initiative. He is also a sought-after speaker and advisor in China and abroad. He currently serves as Nonresident Research Fellow of the think tank Center for China and Globalization and Senior Advisor of Tsinghua University National Image Research Center specializing in city branding. Dr. Dzodin was a political appointee of President Jimmy Carter and served as lawyer to a presidential commission. Upon the nomination of the White House and the US State Department he served at the United Nations Office in Vienna, Austria. He was Director and Vice President of the ABC Television in New York for more than two decades.