The escalating trade war between the U.S. and China continues stirring deep sentiments across the globe, including claims from Chinese media that Beijing has intentionally greeted Washington’s latest threat of more tariffs — with silence.
On Monday and over the weekend, editorialists and columnists wrestled with the broader geopolitical impact to the possibility that President Donald Trump alters China’s bullish trade practices at the expense of his political base.
In the Middle East, Al Jazeera’s leading opinion on the fast-moving issue is headlined, “Will Trump’s tariffs push the EU [European Union] and China closer together?”
J. Berkshire Miller, a fellow on East Asia for the EastWest Institute, notes that last week, while Mr. Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin — key EU and Chinese officials gathered for a two-day summit in Beijing.
There, they pledged to deepen their relationship “against the backdrop of increasing uncertainty in their relationship with the United States.”
Mr. Miller, however, concludes that while the Trump administration’s approach to trade has been abrasive, the EU remains deeply wary of Chinese trade policy and practices and “is far from making a decision on elevating disagreements with Washington into something larger or overtly siding with Beijing in a united bloc to oppose the moves.”
From Canada, Toronto Star columnist Heather Mallick writes on Monday that “Trump tariffs are a ticking bomb for numbed Americans” and delves in what she sees as a dangerous game that the White House is playing with the economics of Mr. Trump’s working-class political base.
Earlier this month Trump administration trade representatives announced plans to target a possible $200 billion worth of Chinese goods with tariffs — just days after Beijing and Washington levied tit-for-tat tariffs of $34 billion on each other’s goods. More recently, Mr. Trump has said more than $500 billion — or almost the entire value of Chinese goods shipped to America last year — could be targeted in the near future.
Mr. Trump has long demanded that China reform its hard-line trade negotiating tactics and curtail the theft of American technology and intellectual property.
Ms. Mallick explores a more grass-roots angle, contending that U.S.-China trade has allowed Americans “to shop cheaply at Walmart and buy in bulk at Costco” adding that both are “clogged” with Chinese goods.
“If tariffs damaged this system, Americans would march on Washington, D.C. with hammers,” Mr. Mallick writes. “No, those come from China. Make that assault rifles.”
Over the weekend, the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s leading English language paper, headlined its lead opinion, “Why is Beijing unusually muted since Donald Trump’s latest US$500 billion trade war threat?”
Writer Sidney Leng notes that the Chinese state media, “from the official Xinhua news agency to Global Times” did not cover Mr. Trump’s latest threat. He adds that over the weekend, neither the Chinese Commerce Ministry nor the Foreign Ministry issued any statements on the subject.
“The silence in Beijing is unusual,” he writes, “but comes after Chinese media were told not to “over-report” the trade war, to avoid spreading panic.”
Mr. Leng also suggests that Beijing might simply have “nothing to add to its previous statements” which have argued that “a trade war is bad for everyone”.
• Dan Boylan can be reached at dboylan@washingtontimes.com.
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