20 reasons China thought America would never win a trade war
In Xi Jinping’s ‘New Era China’, China expert and public intellectual Robert Lawrence Kuhn explores China under Xi Jinping. This excerpt, written in July 2018, examines why Chinese voices believed their country could outlast America in a trade war — arguments Kuhn records rather than endorses
In July 2018, the US and China were imposing tariffs on each other’s goods, escalating a dispute over trade and technology. On July 6, Donald Trump’s administration introduced additional duties of 25% on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports. Beijing retaliated with tariffs on an equivalent value of American goods. Four days later, Washington announced plans for 10% tariffs on a further $200 billion of Chinese imports. The confrontation was widening, with neither side prepared to back down.