China urges unity, resilience as US trade tensions soar: ‘the sky will not fall’
People’s Daily commentary encourages nation to ‘weather storms’, assures country is prepared to counter Trump’s tariffs with ‘extraordinary’ measures
China has called on the nation to “weather storms together” amid an escalating trade war with the “capricious” Trump administration after the US president warned that Beijing had miscalculated in striking back at his new tariffs.
The editorial said the country would “resolutely” focus on its domestic situation in a bid to turn challenges from the White House’s tariff measures into a strategic opportunity. It also pointed to a battery of potential policy tools that could be used to mitigate shock waves on the world’s No 2 economy from heightened trade tensions with the United States.
The Chinese authorities announced a series of countermeasures on Friday, notably tit-for-tat additional 34 per cent tariffs on all imported American goods, in retaliation for the latest US levies on Chinese products, which observers described as an “epic” response that exceeded expectations.
Chinese stocks dived on the first trading day since Beijing launched its counter-attack. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed more than 7.3 per cent lower on Monday, prompting the Chinese sovereign fund company Central Huijin Investment to ramp up efforts to stabilise the market.