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Cnn
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Chinese chief Xi Jinping said that his nation was “not afraid”, in his first public comments on the climbing of the trade war with the United States, while Beijing raised prices on American products at 125%.
Tariff hike is the last of a tit-form battle between the two largest economies in the world, after Trump increased the tariffs on China to 145%. However, China said that it did not intend to exceed 125%, saying that it would be devoid of entering into an additional escalation.
“The successive imposition of excessively high prices on China by the United States has become nothing more than a game of figures, without real economic significance,” a spokesman for the Chinese trade ministry said on a statement on Friday.
“This simply exposes the American practice of the armaments of prices as an intimidation and coercion tool, turning into a joke,” added the spokesperson.
The trade war between the two economic superpowers in the world landed the international markets and fueled the fears of a global recession. While other countries have rushed to negotiate with Trump, China firmly supported by the United States.
Addressing the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Beijing on Friday before the announcement of new samples, XI said: “There are no winners in a trade war, and going against the world will only lead to self-insulation.”
“For more than 70 years, China’s development has been based on autonomy and hard work – never on the documents of others, and it is not afraid of an unfair removal,” said Xi, quoted by the CCTV state diffuser.
The Chinese chief had remained silent publicly on the tariff war so far, but has struck a provocative note in his first remarks – double the messages of force and resilience already disseminated by Chinese officials and the state media.
“Whatever the way the external environment changes, China will remain confident, will remain concentrated and will focus on managing its own business,” said XI according to CCTV.
As the rest of the world received a 90 -day reprieve from Trump’s “reciprocal” prices this week, the American president decided to concentrate his trade war on China. Before announcing his latest tariff hike on Friday, Beijing said he would limit the importation of Hollywood films, after having traveled his own prices in the United States 84% and prevented certain American companies from doing business in China or importing Chinese double-use goods.
The ball is now back to the American court. Although China says it “will not engage” in new price increases, it has many other options in its toolbox.
Influential Chinese commentators with links to Beijing have launched a series of possible countermeasures that China could take, in particular the suspension of fentanyl cooperation, prohibiting the importation of American poultry, limiting market access for services such as legal consultants and investigating the quantity of American companies won by their intellectual property in China.
“If the United States persists in substantially affecting the interests of China, China will resolutely take countermeasures and will fight until the end,” said the spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce on Friday.
The unprecedented prices threaten to decimate trade between the two biggest economies in the world and damage damage in other areas, without any obvious offer in sight.
CNN reported Thursday that Trump is waiting for Xi to reach out – and told his team that the United States would not take the first step; But Beijing has repeatedly refused to organize a leading level phone call.
Rather than calling Trump to negotiate prices, XI rather launched a week of diplomacy with high issues with other business partners to push the growing trade war.
His Friday meeting with Sanchez of Spain became before a multi-nation tour next week from Southeast Asia-a region strongly targeted by Trump’s “reciprocal” prices before they are paused. XI will visit Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia during its first trip abroad this year, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Although such high -level meetings generally take weeks, or even months to plan, the moment of announcements – just days after the two economic superpowers have imposed record prices on each other – underlines the message of XI according to which China does not retreat.
The Chinese chief seeks to capitalize on the disorders triggered by Trump’s pricing work to deepen the links with the nations of Asia to Europe, throwing China as a reliable partner and defender of world trade.
Sanchez, who is on his third visit to China in two years, is probably the first of a burst of European leaders heading towards Beijing in the middle of global economic uncertainty triggered by Trump.
During their meeting, Xi told Sanchez that the world underwent invisible accelerated changes in a century.
“The more complex and volatile the international landscape, the more important it is to maintain healthy and stable relations between China and Spain,” said Xi, promising to work together in areas such as new high -tech and high -tech manufacturing cities.
The Chinese chief also extended a branch of olive tree to the European Union, calling it “an important pole in a multipolar world” and stressed that China has always “clearly supported” the group.
In a barely lived blow in the United States, XI also called China and the EU – which together represent more than a third of the world economy – to work together to defend international rules and order.
“China and the EU should fulfill their international responsibilities, jointly maintain the trend of global economic globalization and the global commercial environment, and work together to oppose unilateral intimidation,” said Xi, using a sentence that Beijing often had the habit of criticizing American prices.
The strengthening of strategic links with its neighbors is raised on the Chinese diplomatic program.
Vietnam and Cambodia were among the hardest countries affected by Trump’s “reciprocal” prices – fixed at 46% and 49% respectively before the break. The two countries have increased in investment in Chinese and international companies in recent years, while they have been removing China’s supply chains to take advantage of lower labor costs and cover themselves against American samples.
This week, XI called China to build a “shared future with neighboring countries”, while speaking at a large -scale working conference of the Communist Party on peripheral diplomacy.
An official declaration of the two -day meeting called for China to “strengthen cooperation on industrial and supply chains” of neighboring Asian nations.
China’s relationships with its neighbors were “their best since modern times, while entering a critical phase in which regional dynamics and world changes become deeply interconnected,” the statement said.
Beijing relations with countries in Europe and Asia have been more and more tested in recent years, nations aligned by the West after the United States, have sought to limit China access to semiconductor technology, for example. The narrow relations of Beijing with Moscow supported these links more.
But since Trump’s re -election, China has been looking forward to repairing links. In recent weeks, Chinese officials have spoke to counterparts in South Korea, Japan and European countries in order to extend commercial cooperation – and one of the United States by winning allies and American partners exasperated by the Commercial War at full speed.
Chinese business partners are likely to consider Beijing openings with skepticism.
Many of these nations are wary of being flooded with cheap Chinese products. Beijing is also well known for having exerted access to its massive market as an army to force countries, often on the political positions which have triggered the anger of Beijing.
This story has been updated with additional reports and context.
