Conventional Russian wood dolls known as Matryoshka depicting China’s President Xi Jinping (left) and U.S. President Donald Trump are on sale at a memento store in St. Petersburg, Russia. (Dmitri Lovetsky/AP/File)
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TAIPEI, Taiwan — U.S. President Donald Trump’s commerce conflict with Canada, Mexico and China is ramping up over the manufacturing and importation of the opiate fentanyl, together with commerce surpluses and unlawful border crossings by migrants from throughout the globe.
Here’s what Beijing says about it:
What Has Been China’s Response So Far?
China has reiterated its menace to take “obligatory countermeasures to defend its official rights and pursuits” following Trump’s determination to impose 10% tariffs on China for allegedly doing too little to stem the manufacturing of precursor chemical compounds for fentanyl.
BREAKING:
China says it would take retaliatory measures in opposition to Trump’s new tariffs. pic.twitter.com/WNI8v0YvO3
— Globe Eye Information (@GlobeEyeNews) February 2, 2025
The International Ministry assertion issued Feb. 2 didn’t point out any particular retaliatory measures, however mentioned “China calls on the US to appropriate its wrongdoings, keep the hard-won constructive dynamics within the counternarcotics cooperation, and promote a gentle, sound and sustainable growth of China-U.S. relationship.”
China says the U.S. motion violates World Commerce Group guidelines and has vowed to deliver a case earlier than the physique that governs world commerce.
The Ministry of Public Safety on Feb. 2 made close to equivalent expenses and the Commerce Ministry additionally issued a intently worded assertion.
Who Does China Say Is to Blame?
Trump accuses China of permitting the manufacturing of fentanyl, which is then made into tablets in Mexico and smuggled into and distributed all through the U.S., which information some 70,000 overdose deaths from the drug yearly.
China says the U.S. should maintain itself to account as a substitute of “threatening different nations with arbitrary tariff hikes,” the International Ministry mentioned. “The USA must view and remedy its personal fentanyl subject in an goal and rational manner … (China is) one of many world’s hardest nations on counternarcotics each when it comes to coverage and its implementation.”
Consultants say China executes an unknown variety of individuals every year for smuggling medicine, however home drug use is comparatively low.
The Ministry of Public Safety assertion mentioned the U.S. has not reported any fentanyl precursor seizures originating in China since Beijing started to take authorized motion.
What Different Points Could Be Having an Impression?
China’s monumental commerce deficit with the U.S., which reached practically $1 trillion final 12 months, has been a continuing goal of Trump’s complaints. Tariffs would make Chinese language items dearer for U.S. customers, who will in the end must pay a major a part of the price of importing every thing from toys to clothes.
China’s very important export market might be impacted if U.S. customers resolve to “purchase American.” The Chinese language home financial system has failed to answer a variety of government-backed stimuli, whereas international infrastructure tasks and different main authorities initiatives that add to the nation’s already excessive public debt threaten extra financial stagnation.
That’s already beginning to derail Chinese language President Xi Jinping’s push to overhaul the U.S. in key financial and political indicators, threatening his final ambition to beat the island republic of Taiwan and assert Chinese language primacy within the Indo-Pacific area.
Stopping unlawful immigration has additionally been one in every of Trump’s core political messages, and was named in tariff actions in opposition to U.S. neighbors Mexico and Canada. Unlawful arrivals from China are thought of a fraction of such numbers, however Trump has put nearly each nation on discover that he’ll maintain them accountable for his or her nationals who enter the U.S. outdoors the regulation.
