Trump-Xi Trade War: Who Will Blink First?

President Donald Trump has upped the ante on China by announcing an unprecedented 145 per cent tariff on all imports from that country while  giving a 90-day reprieve to the rest of the world. The world is breathing a sigh of relief as nations get  time to negotiate with Washington. Trump라이브 바카라  pause was triggered by the bloodbath in the stock and, particularly, the bond market. The announcement has helped to shore up American and Asian stocks. 

This means that the full blown trade war between the  world라이브 바카라 two largest economies is likely to continue, and the reverberations from the stand-off will affect all countries in an interconnected world. Since the 1972 breakthrough  between China and the US, with Richard Nixon라이브 바카라 visit to Beijing, the US and Chinese economies are interlinked and helped business라이브 바카라 from both countries to prosper. 

 Trump wanted China to bend the knee and come rushing to Washington to negotiate. Trump is angry that China dared to escalate tension by slapping its own tariffs on American goods. De-coupling of the US-China economy will take time. Trump began a tariff war with China during his  first term as President, when he called out China for unfair trade practices. A tit-for-tat battle  followed. Joe Biden continued Trump라이브 바카라 lead  as the American establishment regards  China as its greatest threat and a serious challenger to America라이브 바카라 dominance.   

But what Trump started earlier, was nothing compared to what is happening now. This time while China is the principle target, President Donald Trump has unleashed tariffs on all countries that have a trade surplus with the US. Larry Summers, the well- respected American economist and a former US commerce secretary, welcomed Trump라이브 바카라 decision to pause the tariffs but said that the uncertainty that has marked the President라이브 바카라 decisions is bad for business. American credibility is on the line according to him. "The Administration was crowing over the weekend about all the countries that wanted to talk. No postponement then. Now they are rightly scared after collapsing markets. Reckless improvisation not a strategy and total dishonesty about what is driving them," Summers said in a social media post  on X. 

A confident Trump started  his second term  by imposing reciprocal tariffs on all of America라이브 바카라 trade partners that, according to him, had taken the US for a ride for decades. On April 2, Trump announced a 34 per cent tariff hike on Chinese imports. China responded with its own 34 per cent tariff on US goods. This led to Trump slapping a fresh  50 per cent tariff on China of 104 percent and Beijing upended its own tariffs to 84 per cent. On Thursday tariff on China was further raised to 125 per cent. As White House press secretary  Karoline Leavitt told reporters yesterday. ``You punch the US, and the US under this President will punch back.’’  

Trump is ready to talk to Xi Jinping, and wants the latter to call him. But China does not operate like this. Xi--one of China라이브 바카라 most powerful leaders next only to Mao Zedong, the founder of the Communist Party of China--  cannot be seen to be bowing to America. The Chinese public have grown up on the assumption that the West had in the past humiliated and looked down on the people of China, and the country is now  emerging from that history to take its rightful place in the world.  

 “Ours will no longer be a nation subject to insult and humiliation. We have stood up,” Mao had said, explaining that a new era had begun for China under CCP leadership. Some may ask: Didn’t China have 5,000 years of a glorious and storied history? What did China have to be insulted or humiliated about? To whom was China standing up? Chairman Mao Zedong라이브 바카라 words in his speech announcing the founding of the People라이브 바카라 Republic of China on October 1, 1949, holds good for the majority of Chinese even today.   

So who will bell the cat and take the first step to end the trade war is a major problem. Like Xi, Trump cannot be seen to be making the first move. "I think an intervention--American slang for when someone does something stupid or hurtful and the family/ friends have to intervene--will occur at some point. Whether that comes from Congress or from the big donors, I am not sure,’’ says an American-Indian source who did not wish to be identified. How long that takes remains to be seen.