Beijing is promising the Chinese people that “the sky will not fall” as a result of US President Donald Trump’s aggressive new tariffs, and is calling on the nation to “weather the storm together,” the South China Morning Post reports, citing state media.
Trump, meanwhile, has threatened to up the cumulative 54 percent tariff rate already imposed upon most Chinese goods to 104 percent if Beijing does not withdraw the countermeasures it announced on Friday, the BBC reported.
Beijing imposed a 34 percent tariff rate on all US imports in response to Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement last Wednesday, which saw US trade partners hit with new levies of between 10 and 50 percent.
Vice commerce minister Ling Ji told a panel of US company representatives on Sunday that China’s retaliatory tariffs were “aimed at bringing the United States back onto the right track of the multilateral trade system,” France 24 reported.
Ling added that “the root cause of the tariff issue lies in the United States” and promised that China would remain a “promising land” for foreign investment.”
[See more: Beijing to Washington: ‘Stop using tariffs as a weapon’]
An editorial in People’s Daily said China would “resolutely” focus on its domestic situation while working to turn Washington’s shifting trade policies into a strategic opportunity.
The central government, it said, “had already anticipated this new round of American economic suppression, has thoroughly assessed its potential impacts and prepared contingency plans with sufficient buffers and policy flexibility.”
The editorial was printed on Sunday – ahead of a wave of selling on Monday, which saw Chinese tech firms Alibaba and JD.com drop 14 percent and 13 percent of their share value respectively.
One state-run investor, Central Huijin, has reportedly already begun intervening in domestic stock markets to counter the fallout being experienced in the wake of last week’s massive tariff hikes. The intervention reportedly drove up stock prices, narrowing losses in the A-share market – which refers to yuan-denominated stocks traded on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges.
Several major investment banks have predicted that China’s central bank will announce rate cuts and heightened fiscal spending to further shore up the economy in the near future.
