China yesterday threatened retaliation if US President Donald Trump’s planned tariff hikes go ahead, while the renewed acrimony between the two biggest global economies sent stock markets tumbling.
The Chinese government accused Trump of breaching his June agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to revive negotiations aimed at ending a costly fight over Beijing’s trade surplus and technology ambitions.
Trump rattled financial markets with Thursday’s surprise announcement of 10 percent tariffs on US$300 billion of Chinese imports, effective Sept. 1.
Photo: EPA-EFE, David Chang
That would extend punitive duties to everything the US buys from China.
If that goes ahead, “China will have to take necessary countermeasures to resolutely defend its core interests,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said yesterday.
“We don’t want to fight, but we aren’t afraid to,” Hua told a regular news briefing.
She urged Washington to “abandon its illusions, correct mistakes and return to consultations based on equality and mutual respect.”
“Imposing tariffs is definitely not the right way to resolve trade frictions,” Chinese State Councilor Wang Yi (王毅) told reporters in Bangkok, where he was attending an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting.
Washington earlier imposed 25 percent tariffs on US$250 billion of Chinese products.
Beijing has retaliated by raising import duties on US$110 billion of US goods.
China is about to run out of US imports for retaliation due to their lopsided trade balance. It last year imported about US$160 billion of US goods.
However, regulators have extended retaliatory measures to include slowing down customs clearance for US companies, and putting off issuing licenses in insurance and other fields.
Beijing is also threatening to release an “unreliable entities” blacklist of foreign companies that might face restrictions on doing business with China.
Plans for that were announced after Washington in May imposed crippling restrictions on sales of US technology to Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
Trump’s announcement surprised investors after the White House said that Beijing promised to buy more farm goods.
It came as their latest trade talks ended in Shanghai with no sign of a deal.
Officials said that they would resume next month in Washington.
The announcement “is likely to put a comprehensive deal further out of reach,” Fitch Solutions said in a report.
Tokyo’s main stock market index fell 2.5 percent by midday and Hong Kong’s benchmark lost 2.3 percent. Indices in Shanghai, Sydney and Seoul also declined.
Earlier on Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 fell for a fourth day, losing 0.9 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1 percent and the NASDAQ Composite ended 0.8 percent lower.
Trump’s earlier tariffs were intended to minimize the effects on ordinary Americans by focusing on industrial goods, but the new tariffs would hit a vast range of consumer products, from cellphones to silk scarves.
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that China has “no right to represent Taiwan,” but stressed that the nation was willing to work with Beijing on issues of mutual interest. “The Republic of China has already put down roots in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu,” Lai said in his first Double Ten National Day address outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. “And the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China [PRC] are not subordinate to each other.” “The People’s Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan,” he said at the event marking the 113th National Day of
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
SPEECH IMPEDIMENT? The state department said that using routine celebrations or public remarks as a pretext for provocation would undermine peace and stability Beijing’s expected use of President William Lai’s (賴清德) Double Ten National Day speech today as a pretext for provocative measures would undermine peace and stability, the US Department of State said on Tuesday. Taiwanese officials have said that China is likely to launch military drills near Taiwan in response to Lai’s speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims. A state department spokesperson said it could not speculate on what China would or would not do. “However, it is worth emphasizing that using routine annual celebrations or public remarks as a pretext or excuse for provocative or coercive
RSS