Beijing orders state media to soften criticism of Donald Trump as the US and China tone down their trade war rhetoric
Beijing has directed state media not to use ‘aggressive language’ against the US president, who has avoided flinging insults at Xi Jinping
With a China-US trade war under way, both parties are adopting a no-insult strategy, choosing to remain muted in their rhetoric about the opposing side’s leader.
After answering Washington’s 25 per cent levy on US$34 billion of Chinese goods with equivalent tariffs on US products, Beijing has directed state media to watch how they report on US President Donald Trump, mainland media sources said.
“It’s been said that we should not use aggressive language for Trump,” said one of two sources who declined to be named because internal directions often are regarded as confidential information.
Even though Chinese officials and state media have attacked the trade policies of the Trump administration, so far they have not laid blame on the US president or his officials – a move seen as an attempt to avoid antagonising Trump and further complicating negotiations.
While the Beijing directive may not have been issued across the board – two other state media sources said they were not instructed how to write about Trump with regards to trade – it mirrored one of the guidelines on an official propaganda instruction widely circulated on social media.
The edict called on media outlets not to make vulgar attacks on Trump to avoid “making this a war of insults”.
The South China Morning Post reported last month that state media agencies were instructed to play down mentions of Made in China 2025 – a strategic industrial policy aimed at transforming China into a high-tech powerhouse – in their reports.
