Markets Wobble as China Ramps Up Trade War With U.S.
China: Trump Started It, We’re Not Backing Down
China announced Friday that it will raise tariffs on U.S. goods from 84% to 125% — the latest salvo in an escalating trade war between the world’s two largest economies that has rattled markets and raised fears of a global slowdown. While U.S. President Donald Trump paused import taxes this week for other countries, he raised tariffs on China and they now total 145%. China has denounced the policy as “economic bullying” and promised countermeasures. The new tariffs begin Saturday. Washington’s repeated jacking up of tariffs “will become a joke in the history of the world economy,” a Chinese Finance Ministry spokesman said in a statement announcing the new tariffs. “However, if the U.S. insists on continuing to substantially infringe on China’s interests, China will resolutely counter and fight to the end.” China’s Commerce Ministry said it would file another lawsuit with the World Trade Organization against the U.S. tariffs. Trump’s on-again, off-again measures have caused alarm in stock and bond markets and led some to warn that the U.S. could be headed for a recession. There was some relief when Trump paused the tariffs for most countries — but concerns remain since the U.S. and China are the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 economies, respectively - AP
China analyst Victor Gao says that China is big enough to weather a long tariff war with the United States for thousands of years. Speaking to the UK’s Channel 4 News, he said: “China has been here for 5000 years. Most of the time, there was no United States and we survived.” He said that ‘China will fight to the very end’ in a trade war after President Trump hit China with 145% tariffs. Gao, who is president of the Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization, said: “If the United States wants to bully China we will deal with the situation without them, and we expect to survive for another 5,000 years.”
“China has been here for 5000 years. Most of the time, there was no United States and we survived…China will fight to the very end’ - China analyst Victor Gao
A temporary committee is to take over Gaza administration for 6 months until the Palestinian Authority is able to take control, Egypt's foreign minister said at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum. Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan added that the Gaza Contact Group rejects any plans to relocate Gazans beyond its borders. “Israel should make peace with the Palestinians,” he said. Saudi Arabia’s envoy also blasted Israel’s actions in Gaza, saying Palestinians are “being deprived of their basic needs.”
UK defence secretary John Healey said today’s discussions of the Defense Contact Group in Brussels led to over €21bn in fresh military aid commitments from allied countries, “a record boost in military funding for Ukraine.” He adds the UK also continues its support, with the total of £4.5bn to be spent on military support for Ukraine this year. Germany’s Boris Pistorius condemned Russia for “continuing its attacks against Ukraine,” as he says Moscow “is still not yet interested in peace.” He added: “Ukraine needs a strong military, and only then can the negotiation process lead to a just and lasting peace. Separately, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas landed herself in hot water again after her apparent criticism that there was a lack of clarity on the Coalition of the Willing’s plans for the reassurance force in Ukraine.
The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine is leaving her post, the State Department announced Thursday, a move that may complicate the already delicate relationship between Washington and Kyiv, which has been strained by President Trump’s efforts to end the war. “Ambassador Brink is stepping down,” a State Department spokesperson said in an email, referring to the U.S. envoy to Ukraine, Bridget A. Brink. “She’s been the ambassador there for three years — that’s a long time in a war zone.” The State Department’s chief spokeswoman, Tammy Bruce, later confirmed Ms. Brink’s departure at a daily press briefing, saying, “We wish her well.” She declined to discuss the matter further. Ms. Brink could not be immediately reached for comment. It was not immediately clear whether Ms. Brink resigned voluntarily, was asked to step down by the new Trump administration, or a combination of both. President Trump has shifted America’s Ukraine policy since taking office, including temporarily cutting off military aid to Kyiv and pressuring it to sign a contentious deal to get a major stake in Ukraine’s minerals and energy projects. After Mr. Trump took office earlier this year, Ms. Brink (a Biden appointee) was forced to adjust her approach to align with the new White House policy, which adopted a more neutral stance in the war between Ukraine and Russia. This was perhaps most evident in a social media post she made last week following a Russian missile attack on the central town of Kryvyi Rih that killed 19 people, including nine children. Ms. Brink condemned the attack but failed to specify that Russia had fired the missile. The omission drew sharp criticism from Mr. Zelensky, who argued that silence would embolden Moscow to “continue the war and ignore diplomacy.” - NYT
My comment: ambassadorial posts usually last five years so Brink is indeed leaving early. My take is that she was already on thin ice with the Zelensky government and was at risk of being declared persona non grata for her recent statements and posts. Kyiv sources portrayed her as a weak ambassador, especially when compared to others who’ve served before her).
Donald Trump re-election was partially fuelled by his rants against Covid-19 vaccines, and, in a worst case scenario, he will take a page out of the playbook a former U.S. President Andrew Jackson and dissolve the Federal Reserve - America’s central bank. That was the prediction of Thai television journalist and analyst Nattakorn Devakula at a panel in Bangkok at the Thai Foreign Correspondents’ Club. “Trump hates the idea that he can’t tell the Fed chair to lower interest rates….The Fed is seen as an elitist institution that needs to go away.” Devakula emphasized that his prediction was an absolute worst case scenario. On the Trump tariff blitz, he said they will be used to solely punish China and to to force multinational firms to decouple from it and relocate production to other Asian countries.
“Trump hates the idea that he can’t tell the Fed chair to lower interest rates….The Fed is seen as an elitist institution that needs to go away” - Thai television journalist and analyst Nattakorn Devakula
A senior aide to US President Donald Trump has landed in Russia amid a flurry of diplomatic activity around the war in Ukraine that includes US-Ukrainian talks in Washington and a meeting chaired by Britain and Germany in Brussels. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media that US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff had arrived on April 11. He stopped in Moscow on his way to high-level talks with Tehran over Iran's nuclear program scheduled for April 12 in Oman. Peskov said further information would follow if Trump's envoy meets with President Vladimir Putin. The Russian state news agency TASS said Witkoff immediately met with Kirill Dmitriev, a well-connected Kremlin insider and head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. Last week the two men met in Washington, D.C., where they discussed strengthening bilateral relations. The visit comes a day after US and Russian officials met in Istanbul to discuss normalization of diplomatic ties, potentially reversing some of the mass expulsions of embassy staff since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 - RFE/RL
China warned parties in the Ukraine war on Thursday against making "irresponsible remarks" after President Volodymyr Zelensky said Beijing knew its citizens were being recruited by Russia to fight in the conflict. Zelensky said on Wednesday that Kyiv had details of 155 Chinese nationals who had been deployed to assist Moscow's invasion, a day after he said the Ukrainian army had captured two Chinese soldiers in the eastern Donetsk region - France 24
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) denounced Israel’s targeted airstrike that hit a media tent in southern Gaza on Monday, killing two journalists and injuring eight others, and called on the international community to act to stop Israel killing Palestinian journalists. The airstrike on the tent housing journalists in the grounds of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis killed Hilmi al-Faqaawi, a social media manager for pro-Palestinian Islamic Jihad broadcaster Palestine Today TV. Ahmed Mansour, a Palestine Today news agency editor, died that night after sustaining severe burns. “This is not the first time Israel has targeted a tent sheltering journalists in Gaza. The international community’s failure to act has allowed these attacks on the press to continue with impunity, undermining efforts to hold perpetrators accountable,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Regional Director Sara Qudah. “CPJ calls on authorities to allow the injured, some of whom have sustained severe burns, to be evacuated immediately for treatment and to stop attacking Gaza’s already devastated press corps.” Since October 7, 2023, more than 175 journalists and media workers have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war.
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