China has warned other states against entering into agreements with the United States that could harm Beijingʼs interests.
Bloomberg writes about this.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that while China respects other countriesʼ efforts to resolve their trade disputes with the United States, Beijing "resolutely opposes any side reaching agreements at the expense of Chinaʼs interests". If such agreements are made, China "will never accept it and will take mirror measures in response".
In effect, Beijing is raising the stakes in the trade war with Washington and showing that other countries risk being caught between two fires.
Chinaʼs warning comes as other countries prepare to negotiate with the United States to ease or roll back President Donald Trumpʼs tough tariffs, with Washington demanding they limit trade with China and curb Beijingʼs industrial capacity to prevent China from circumventing American tariffs.
Bloomberg reports that President Trumpʼs top economic advisers are discussing the possibility of urging other countries to impose so-called secondary tariffs — effectively monetary sanctions — on imports from countries with close trade ties with China. Other sources say the US also wants trading partners to refrain from buying surplus Chinese goods.
China has already implemented targeted policies against countries that have engaged with the United States in ways that Beijing believes are detrimental to it. For example, in 2016, the United States and South Korea agreed to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, which Washington says is necessary to counter threats from North Korea. China has said the system would upset the strategic balance in the region and its powerful radars would allow it to spy on Chinese missiles.
So in response, China stopped selling tourist packages to South Korea and made it difficult for Korean companies to operate. Beijing and Seoul later agreed to normalize relations, but the THAAD installations remained in South Korea.
To counter the US measures, China has recently stepped up diplomatic efforts in Southeast Asia and Europe. Last week, Chinese leader Xi Jinping toured Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia, seeking to unite the “Asian family” to better counter the risks posed by US tariffs.
- On April 2, the US President Donald Trump reported that he would impose tariffs on goods from other countries. The new tariffs will apply to more than 180 countries and territories (not including Russia, North Korea, Cuba and Belarus, which are already under sanctions). A 10% tariff was imposed on Ukraine.
- On April 9, Trump postponed tariffs on all but China, which received the highest tariffs of 145%, while most countries are subject to a base rate of 10%. Now he is threatening to impose tariffs of 245%.
- Chinaʼs Ministry of Finance announced on April 11 that it would raise tariffs on all American goods from 84% to 125%.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.