Public opinion on the US-China trade tensions is deeply polarized with significant skepticism towards the US government's strategies, especially under President Trump. Many support aggressive trade policies to protect American interests, but concerns about negative consequences for consumers and the global economy are widespread. There's a notable sense that China's preparedness and economic influence place the US at a disadvantage, leading to criticism of US leadership and strategies.

United States Government

Chinese Government

American Consumers

17% of Chinese GDP is from exports. 15% of those exports go to the US

That’s a hit, but I can only think Americans thing 50% of Chinese GDP is selling them pocket pussies and fidget spinners

The US certainly can hurt the Chinese economy; I mean look at huawei: they’d probably be bigger than apple by now if they didn’t get nuked by the US, or other semiconductor restrictions

But a killing blow? No

stav_and_nick

Neoliberal propaganda, Trade Wars are Good and Easy To Win(tm)

do-wr-mem

Just set 0% tariff on every single country on earth. Every country must obey that and letting our products entering their country for also 0% 

Fck this merchantilist and protectionist nonsense. No quota, no restrictions, no tariff. Pure free trade

Any-Feature-4057

[deleted]

Europe just needs to follow the formula - offer him a personal bribe.  Say they’ll build a Trump Tower in Brussels or something, and then just wrap it in lovely EU red tape so it never happens.

Whilst it’s all very well tutting about how venal Trump is, he’s also dramatically dumb and easily led, and world leaders are learning to play him.  It’s all about what Trump can claim on social media, the details don’t matter to him.

At the end of this 4 years, the US’ place geopolitically will be vastly diminished so might as well take advantage of it.

Hungry_Horace

&gt;European finance chiefs reacted warmly but cautiously to the de-escalation of US-China trade tensions as they gathered in Brussels. The plan between Washington and Beijing to temporarily lower tariffs shows there’s room for deal-making, but the EU has made slow progress so far — and the bloc was once again a target for President Donald Trump, who called it “in many ways nastier than China.”

To go from another article:

&gt;U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the European Union is worse than China, hours after Washington and Beijing agreed to slash respective punitive tariffs and de-escalate their trade war. "European Union is in many ways nastier than China, okay?" Trump said, as he lashed the bloc. "Oh, they'll come down a lot. You watch. We have all the cards. They treat us very unfairly."

To add to this, with Trump's current trade war with China ending with little apparent concessions apart from a climb-down from previous tariffs there's a possibility that the Trump administration will switch to facing/trying to break out of the current impasse it's at with the European Union.

frissio

Translation: Europe needs to gift him a helicopter or a yacht

ApostleofV8

Another one step forward, two steps back. Once Trump’s term is over, it will be as if he’s done nothing at all. Europe should just buy him an expensive gift.

winterchainz

Now time to see if Europe is willing to do make concessions. We can see how the eu negotiates when it has the leverage advantage. They are being ruthless with britian. 

Based on public opinion numbers I don't know if the European public would accept making concessions to trump the way China just did. Trump has the leverage in these negotiations, Europe needs to convince him to accept a trade deal. Not the other way around. 

And Europeans definitely won't bribe him. They are to proud to use that tactic.

colepercy120

China has these idiots by the balls. It's fun to watch. They pissed in their own milkshake. Fuck 'em.

HollisFigg

This guy is so terrified by Trump that he’s visibly battling saying the truth over general White House propaganda…

omnipotentqueue

China plays the long game, they're fine to wait it out. Trump needs a deal and he's not getting one any time soon.

Quesabirria

If I was China I would hold off until the Supreme Court decides. Why give up anything when I might not have to.

stewartm0205

Springtimefist78

This is what happens when you go all in on a bluff and everyone raises because they know you suck at this game.

SpendNo9011

fart400

RSecretSquirrel

Stalled or ever even started? Which is it?

slaty_balls

Unfair_Highway6667

T A C O

https://preview.redd.it/223fbkieav3f1.jpeg?width=1080&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=4d0774595ab96921b1fd4e7dadfe79e736a790f4

Automatic-Guide-4307

This is so funny. These guys are just idiots

seanmonaghan1968

Wrecking ball to the world 🌎 the GOP is..

Ill_Blacksmith693

Trump's threats and insults aren't working?  Trump was bragging that China was desperate to make a deal, so why won't they take his calls?  

China knows that Trump earned his new TACO name.  HE has to fix the mess that HE created.  China can wait and watch him squirm and continue to make a fool of himself.  Tick. Tock.

NitWhittler

The courts just invalidated his tariffs, so I guess we are back to square one, but i know the orange turd will disobey them.

AbbreviationsOld5541

A very wooden delivery Mr Bessent. No deals but they have concepts of a deal.

Dramatic_Art_5479

MIKE_2666

Bojim1965

https://preview.redd.it/r7vfbin6bw3f1.png?width=1996&amp;format=png&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=b8d39bf8916903eae5558aebd999b6125ca65b54

NiamNomed

FIZUK9

So basically China won’t return any of their calls.

Mrrrrggggl

Soontoexpire1024

The "I'm confident" part filled me with confidence

Everything is gonna be OK 👌

Allyano

MoveItSpunkmire

Fun-Diet8358

I wouldn't trust this guy telling me which way the bathroom at IHOP is.

ryanCrypt

This guy talks like the guy behind the camera has a gun pointed at his head.

TheBigLebroccoli

Extreme-Tie9282

He sounds like he is giving a 6th grade book report in front of the class

Movedonnerlikeabitch

You mean China doesn't want to deal with Taco Trump?

Professor_Science420

Sounds terrified, did I just poop my pants.

Blue_Goose23

Bessent is a robot on low battery. This 'Tariff by light switch' is unsustainable at best.

Joey_BagaDonuts57

So Trump hasn’t made his preferences known yet? Wth are we doing here lmao

Open_Tradition227

Euphoric-Quail662

There are children in grade school, right now, who will write their doctoral thesis, or dissertation, about this time in history. MAGA is a cult.

Shafter-Boy

![gif](giphy|ktLg1ztPLhc8o)

Scott Bessent

jokersvoid

Fadamsmithflyertalk

typkrft

Trump will be stripped of most of his tariff powers. State governments will not be able to honor debts. Our legal system will handle this threat .

BlahBlahBlahSmithee

TACO no need to make a deal wait him out. It'll be fun to read the tweets or whatever they're called

Desperate_Donut3981

Anyone who works for Trump knows how he has no loyalty to anyone 

If you take the job, expect to be fired as soon as truth is out, and then it was all their fault, naturally.

Revolutionary-Link47

SuitableHope7813

Is there a gun behind him?

Why is he talking like that?!

cautious_human

Does Bessent always sound like he was staring down a barrel?

Edit: Grammar.

Tim-Rocket

Did the stump not say that these deals were all done? 

Anyone will tell ya that renegotiating these things takes years. 

Knob

ShezSteel

Is it because dear leader saved them from total collapse or because even they know his tariffs are illegal and won't be upheld?🤔

SmellSilly1537

Dude embarrass your self on your own time.

Current-Historian-34

Donald Trump claims to be a master negotiator. The sad reality is that China and Russia hold all of the cards, because Trump misplayed them. Instead of playing into Russia's weaking hand in the Ukraine, he gave Putin a reprieve. How do you MAGAS explain that?

Horns8585

I thought Agent Orange said he had a deal? 😜

BeachFuture

Not getting enough news on Reddit?  Want to get more Informed Opinions™ from the experts leaving their opinion, for free, on a website?  We have the scratch your itch needs. InTheNews now has a discord! Link: https://discord.gg/Me9EJTwpHS


*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/inthenews) if you have any questions or concerns.*

AutoModerator

mattmcclin

From article:

If Donald Trump were trying to lose his trade war with China, it’s hard to see what he would be doing differently. The president’s gambit is likely to strengthen China’s geopolitical position, embolden Beijing militarily, and diminish both the United States’ global standing and its economy.

Earlier this month, Trump increased tariffs on all goods from China to 145 percent. China, in turn, responded with 125 percent tariffs on American goods, plus more targeted measures. This is a classic trade war: two countries engaged in a tit-for-tat escalation of trade barriers, each with the goal of forcing the other country to back down and, at least in theory, agree to certain concessions.



Become a Subscriber
The Trump administration believes that it has the upper hand in this fight. “We export one-fifth to them of what they export to us,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently remarked, “so that is a losing hand for them.” That view has things backwards. The fact that the American economy is hooked on Chinese goods is a massive weakness for the U.S., not an advantage. For many categories of goods, China is not only America’s top supplier but also the world’s dominant supplier, meaning that the U.S. can’t simply get them from other countries. According to data gathered by Jason Miller, a professor at Michigan State University who specializes in supply-chain management, China produces more than 70 percent of the world’s lithium-ion batteries, air conditioners, and cookware; more than 80 percent of the world’s smartphones, kitchen appliances, and toys; and about 90 percent of the world’s solar panels and processed rare earth minerals, the latter of which are crucial inputs to cars, phones, and several key military technologies.

Pivoting to producing these goods at home would take years, if not decades: It would involve forming new companies, building new factories, creating supply chains from scratch, and training fleets of workers. For it to happen at all, companies would have to be confident that the tariffs would be in place for the long term. China, meanwhile, is only heavily dependent on the U.S. for a small fraction of its imports, and most of those items, such as soybeans and sorghum, can be imported from elsewhere.

Chinese businesses will be hurt by losing access to the American market, but that is an easier problem to solve. China can redirect some of its exports to countries in Europe and East Asia, whose citizens also need phones, toys, and toasters. Beijing could also give money to its own citizens to create more demand for its products at home and provide subsidies to its businesses to help them remain solvent. This asymmetry gives China what the economist Adam Posen calls “escalation dominance”: the ability to inflict disproportionate harm on its economic enemy.



China’s advantage has been bolstered by years of meticulous preparation. Multiple China watchers told me that Trump’s 2018 trade war—in which, at its height, the U.S. imposed an average tariff of about 20 percent on Chinese goods—convinced Beijing that it had to be ready to engage in economic combat at a moment’s notice. Since then, China has invested heavily in such industries as energy, agriculture, and semiconductor production to reduce its dependence on American imports, while pursuing a concerted strategy to consume more goods at home and find new non-U.S. export markets. The goal of these efforts, in the words of Chinese President Xi Jinping, is to “ensure the normal operation of the national economy under extreme circumstances.”



Michael Schuman: Why China won’t give in to Trump

Beijing has also built an arsenal of offensive economic weapons. Already, China has responded to Trump’s trade war by banning exports of several rare earth minerals, a move intended to produce shortages of both major consumer goods (such as cars and phones) and military equipment (such as submarines and fighter jets); launching antitrust investigations into DuPont and Google; and halting all business with Boeing, America’s top aircraft manufacturer. If the situation escalates further, Beijing might block certain high-profile U.S. companies, such as Apple and Tesla, from doing any business in China at all. Then there’s the nuclear option: China, the second-largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, could quickly sell off a sizable chunk of its $760 billion in U.S. Treasuries, a move that would send interest rates soaring, spook investors, and perhaps even trigger a financial crisis.

“China is ready for this fight,” Yeling Tan, a public-policy professor at Oxford University who focuses on Chinese political economy, told me. “It has been busy preparing for an entrenched economic conflict with the U.S. for a long time.”

Unhappy_Earth1

Yeah, they already did. They’re not looking to cut any deals. They don’t need to especially after the way they see that we’re lighting ourselves on fire and the way Zelensky was treated.

Xenikovia

What do you mean by “what if”?  That ship has sailed.  China embarrassed Trump his first term and they’re doing it again now.

Substantial-Sky3597

The US only accounts for 15 percent of China's export market. There's no "trade war" just an idiot who doesn't realize how much shit we can't make or grow in the US.

pattydickens

Pokerhobo

NBA-014

They already do. Trump burnt all bridges and did the most stupid trade war imaginable which opened all options for former US allies to seek a new balance which gives China tons of new spaces to enter negotiations on because countries may be bullied into compliance but they will seek ways out of it asap.

mangalore-x_x

*If*? China doesn’t need American good but Americans *need Chinese goods…*

Creative-Shift5556

Shitler will keep doubling down until we are no longer a country, then probably try to sell off what’s left for personal gain.

Gat0rJesus

China has already won the trade war. This is 5 card draw poker where everyone knows what hand everyone has and Trump went all in against a full house with an 8 high. The dumbest and worst president in US history by miles.

Mike_Honcho_3

We are already losing. That is why Trump is slowly walking back the tariffs. He is surrendering.

TechieTravis

They've won. We're weak and led by idiots with no clear goal. There's an inevitable end here.

Hairy-Dumpling

If? 😂 oh, baby, that ship has sailed, like 10 years ago.

siouxbee1434

If China won I just wish that more and more MAGA will starting to realized that Trump is an idiot. Hope thats not asking too much.

mayonaka_00

Regardless of what happens, this calls into question trusting the USD as a reserve currency or trusting the US as a stable trade partner. 

China has already won.   They can offer the stability the US has provided for decades.

Tojuro

This is what happens when you elect an always angry and embittered toddler to top-negotiator.

He's completely untrustworthy, China and all the other countries will either work around us, or unit against us for better bargaining leverage.  We may never be as rich again in our lifetimes, as we are right now.

Achilles_TroySlayer

Doc_tor_Bob

Hopefully it includes Trump getting sacked and his MAGA constituents driven into abject destitution, having lost their businesses, farms, and other livelihoods.

eremite00

This is a joke right? trump has already capitulated to a 90 day stall. He hopes we’ll all move on to something else. Then he’ll claim victory by dropping the whole thing and claim China lost the trade war. Xi will keep on keeping on, status quo, because he is NOT stupid and will do what’s best for his country. Mainly for his economy. But, MMW, trump made us look stupid and Xi has the upper hand.

One_Equivalent_9302

They already have. Seriously. How can you win a war when you have nothing to bargain with? What does the US have that the rest of the world can't get anywhere else?

Liquid_1998

The US dollar could decline so rapidly that the US can't pay the payments on the national debt and the credit rating tanks leading to Third World status.

KilgoreTrout747

If!? It is the most likely outcome.

The current paradigm is Americans send U.S. Dollars to China. In trade for those dollars China sends U.S. goods. The China uses that money to invest in U.S. Bonds. Huge Win/Win for America. 

Any change to the status quo is going to be worse.

8to24

The have! Their middle class is bigger than our whole population

FnEddieDingle

It's not a question of 'if", it's a question of when. 

It depends on the EU. Together those countries have so much power and technology, they can compete with China. But not in the current state. EU must work strongly together to make that happen. 

To answer your question: influence. They get (are already getting) a lot of influence and power worldwide. Economically, politically and culturally.

Means we adjust our ways to please China in many ways

dat_oracle

Trump is accelerating China’s eclipse of the US. As ecstatic as Putin is to have this imbecile back in the WH, Xi must be damn near delirious.

skywriter90

They will if not they already have .They were prepared for this from the last Trump trade war their exports to the united states is around 12% to 14% of their overall .

LectureAgreeable923

Diogocouceiro

Will they hire white Americans to work? Racism is still a problem

Scifig23

They definitely will. Don't you understand: China is a dictatorship, they can just order their people whatever they need to win this. Even if 50% of their population is unemployed and hungers their political elite has nothing to fear. They can keep that pace up for years

itpsyche

Then that proves Americans economic weakness to the world. A similar way in which no one really fears the Russian military in the same way since Ukraine vastly out performed expectations.

volanger

OvenIcy8646

They will win...they have all the advantages.

Feisty_History9395

Trump has brought snowballs to a flamethrower fight.

zippy72

Nobody wins a trade war. There are only losers who don’t lose as much.

R5Jockey

This is all  basic trade policy stuff. 

Last time Trump touted it as a success, bc China “agreed” to buy billions of dollars of product , yet they didn’t spend a dime, it was all for Trump to save face. Instead it cost us billions in bailing out farmers , which we are getting ready  to do again. Prob other industries too. 

Where’s that savings??  Why does the debt ceiling need raised in his bill?? 

Bc it’s all BULL.

Florida1974

Winning strategy: Bet on Trump to lose. Repeatedly.

Ishpeming_Native

The minds of the magats think china needs the US more than the US needs them but in actuality China doesn’t need the US. China also holds a significant amount of us treasury bonds, 760billion, it’s enough to flatten the bond market in the US. Once china makes the move to ween itself off of US trade, it’ll be a long term damage that may not be repairable. Trump has shown china that the US could be an unreliable trade partner that can cause havoc on their economy if trump has bad dream.  I’m sure this will all lead to the US being great again…

SpecialistAssociate7

totallyclips

Frostsorrow

Renewed trade tensions with China as President Trump accuses China of violating rollback agreements. The US has implemented restrictions on technology exports to China.

US-China Trade Tensions Escalation

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

Parties Involved

What the people want