Stephen McDonell
Chinese correspondent
Getty images
In response to the reason why Beijing does not withdraw to Donald Trump on prices, the answer is that he does not.
Chinese leaders would say that they are not inclined to turn into an intimidator – something that his government has repeatedly labeled the Trump administration as – but it also has the capacity to do in this way beyond other countries on earth.
Before the tariff war started, China had a massive volume of sales in the United States, but, to put it in context, this represented only 2% of its GDP.
That said, the Communist Party would clearly prefer not to be locked up in a trade war with the United States at a time when it has trouble repairing its own considerable economic headaches, after years of real estate crisis, excessive regional debt and unemployment of persistent young people.
However, despite this, the government told its inhabitants that it was in a strong position to resist the attacks of the United States.
He also knows that his own prices will also injure us to exporters.
Trump boasted of his supporters that it would be easy to force China to submit by simply striking the country with prices, but it turned out to be deceptive to the extreme.
Beijing will not surrender.
Chinese chief Xi Jinping told the Spanish Prime Minister on Friday on Friday, Pedro Sanchez, that his country and the European Union should “resist jointly the unilateral intimidation practices” of the Trump administration.
Sanchez, in turn, said that China’s trade tensions with the United States should not hinder its cooperation with Europe.
Their meeting took place in the Chinese capital in the hours that preceded Beijing increased its prices again on the United States goods – although it said that it would not respond to the other increases in American tariffs.
Next week, XI will visit Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia. These are all countries that have been hardly affected by Trump’s prices.
His ministers have met counterparts from South Africa, Saudi Arabia and India, speaking greater commercial cooperation.
In addition, China and the EU are said to be in talks on the potential abolition of European prices on Chinese cars, to be replaced by a minimum price instead, to brake a new spill.
In short, wherever you look at, you can see that China has options.
And analysts have said that these mutual prices increase by the two superpowers are now almost meaningless, because they have already exceeded the point to cut a large part of the trade between them.
Thus, the increases in Tit-For-Tat tariff in the two directions have become more like a symbolism.
The spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mao Ning, has, in the last two days, published images of President Mao on social networks, including a clip during the Korean War when he said in the United States that “no matter how long this war lasts, we will never give in”.
Above that, she published her own comments, saying: “We are Chinese. We are not afraid of provocations. We will not back down.”
When the Chinese government releases President Mao, you know they become serious.
How does the trade war with the United States affect people in China?
