How they see us: China plays waiting game in trade war

The arrogant U.S. has launched an unprovoked trade war, “believing tariffs are enough to crush China,” said the Global Times (China) in an editorial. Faced with a few sticking points in otherwise productive trade negotiations, the Trump administration last week raised import tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10 to 25 percent. Beijing responded with more-measured and targeted tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods starting June 1, with more to follow. The U.S. is gambling that China can be cowed, but it will lose that bet. Threatened by a foreign bully, China will pay any price “to safeguard its sovereignty and dignity.” Our leaders’ strategy is informed by “the tai chi philosophy,” which emphasizes balance and rootedness, and turns an opponent’s raging and flailing against himself. As time will show, the biggest victims of this tariff war will be American farmers, who are seeing their exports to China shrink, and American consumers, who are paying more for Chinese-made products. We are still willing to reach a deal with the U.S., but we will “never make concessions on issues of principle.”

Washington’s approach is all stick and no carrot, said the People’s Daily. It claims to be seeking fair trade, but the principles of such trade are “mutual benefits, win-win results, mutual understanding, and mutual accommodation.” Instead of pursuing gain for all, the U.S. said it wouldn’t eliminate its anti-China tariffs even if a deal were completed, and demanded that Beijing give in. That’s why the international community and U.S. businesses blame this trade war on Washington’s “risky and impetuous” strategy of maximum pressure. Since President Trump prefers bullying to cooperating, said David Dodwell in the South China Morning Post, China should look for new ways to punch back. Beijing could severely curtail the $14 billion a year its people spend on U.S. tourism and education simply by limiting visas for U.S. travel. It could also open bilateral trade talks with the European Union and Japan, using the same draft deal it had been negotiating with the U.S. to give foreign businesses improved access to the Chinese market. The U.S. will likely back down when it sees “international competitors reap benefits from liberalization that they hoped would be exclusively their own.”

At this point, many analysts believe the two sides are “negotiating a divorce,” said Jane Cai, also in the Morning Post. A report published by the Pentagon earlier this month claims that many of Beijing’s major initiatives pose a security threat to the U.S. They include not just Beijing’s military moves—such as building bases on artificial islands in the South China Sea—but also its cultural exchanges and its infrastructure investments in Asia and Africa. The U.S. is even trying to organize a global boycott of Chinese tech giant Huawei on an imagined threat of spyware. If Washington seeks a rival, Beijing is willing to play that role. China “views itself as a linchpin of the global order,” said analyst Jude Blanchette, “with an inherent right to occupy superpower status.” ■