Is there a ‘silver lining’ for China in the tariff war with the US?
Donald Trump’s trade war may offer Beijing a chance to build bridges with Europe and its Asian neighbours and bolster its image internationally
Beijing has already started working to improve relations with these countries and forge alternative trade agreements and partnerships.
“The silver lining of the escalating tension between China and the United States could be that the rest of the world gets tighter together, and ties between Europe and China; Japan, [South] Korea, China; and also Southeast Asia and China, might become closer,” said Tommy Wu, senior China economist at Commerzbank.
Washington has imposed tariffs totalling 145 per cent on Chinese imports so far this year, bringing the effective tariff rate to about 156 per cent. According to a fact sheet released by the White House on Tuesday, China now faces tariffs of up to 245 per cent, once tariffs imposed before his second term began are included.
Meanwhile, Beijing’s new levies on US goods have risen to 125 per cent, again on top of earlier tariffs.
Describing the escalating trade war as an attempt to suppress China that threatens the country’s development, Zhu Feng, a professor of international affairs at Nanjing University, said Trump’s aggressive approach to China “is an opportunity because there is a stark contrast between Trump’s America and President Xi Jinping’s China today”.