BEIJING: China on Monday hit out at other countries making trade deals with the United States at Beijing’s expense, promising countermeasures against those who “appease” Washington in the blistering tariff war.
While the rest of the world has been slapped with a blanket 10 percent tariff, China faces levies of up to 145 percent on many products. Beijing has responded with duties of 125 percent on US goods.
A number of countries are now engaged in negotiations with the United States to lower tariffs, parallel to Washington’s full trade war against top US economic rival China.
But Beijing warned nations on Monday not to seek a deal with the United States that compromised its interests.
“Appeasement will not bring peace, and compromise will not be respected,” a spokesperson for Beijing’s commerce ministry said in a statement.
“To seek one’s own temporary selfish interests at the expense of others’ interests is to seek the skin of a tiger,” Beijing said.
That approach, it warned, “will ultimately fail on both ends and harm others.”
“China firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests,” the spokesperson said.
“If such a situation occurs, China will never accept it and will resolutely take reciprocal countermeasures,” they added.
US President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin.
Trump said Thursday that the United States was in talks with China on tariffs, adding that he was confident the world’s largest economies could make a deal to end the bitter trade war.
“Yeah, we’re talking to China,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I would say they have reached out a number of times.”
“I think we’re going to make a very good deal with China,” he said at the White House.
China has vowed to fight a trade war “to the end” and has not confirmed that it is in talks with Washington, though it has called for dialogue.
It has slammed what it calls “unilateralism and protectionism” by the United States — and warned about an international order reverting to the “law of the jungle.”
“Where the strong prey on the weak, all countries will become victims,” Beijing said Monday.
Beijing slams ‘appeasement’ of US in trade deals that hurt China
https://arab.news/2jykq
Beijing slams ‘appeasement’ of US in trade deals that hurt China
- Threatens countermeasures against those who “appease” Washington in the blistering tariff war
- China has vowed to fight a trade war “to the end,” slamming US “unilateralism and protectionism"
North Korean leader Kim watches cruise missile tests with his daughter
- KCNA said the missiles hit target islands off North Korea’s west coast
SEOUL, South Korea: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his teenage daughter observed tests of strategic cruise missiles fired from a warship, state media reported Wednesday, as North Korea threatened responses to US-South Korean military drills.
Images sent by the Korean Central News Agency showed the two in a conference room looking at a screen showing weapons being fired from the Choe Hyon, a year-old naval destroyer.
Kim Jong Un watched the missiles launches via video on Tuesday and underscored the need to maintain “a powerful and reliable nuclear war deterrent,” KCNA reported in a dispatch that did not mention his daughter.
The girl, reportedly named Kim Ju Ae and about 13, has accompanied her father at numerous prominent events including military parades and weapons launches since late 2022. South Korea’s spy agency assessed last month Kim Jong Un was close to designating her as his heir.
KCNA said the missiles hit target islands off North Korea’s west coast. It quoted Kim Jong Un as saying the launches were meant to demonstrate the navy’s strategic offensive posture and get troops familiarized with weapons firings.
Kim Jong Un observed similar cruise missile launches from the Choe Hyon in person last week, but his daughter was not seen at that appearance.
Tuesday’s missile firings came after the start of the springtime US-South Korean military drills that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.
On Tuesday, Kim Jong Un’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, warned the drills reveal again the US and South Korea’s “inveterate repugnancy toward” North Korea. She said North Korea will “convince the enemies of our war deterrence.”
The 11-day Freedom Shield drill that began Monday is largely a computer-simulated command post exercise and will be accompanied by a field training program. North Korea often reacts to the two sets of training with its own weapons tests.
