Trump says China ‘will take down’ trade barriers as Beijing’s mouthpieces accuse Washington of abusing national security reviews and warn that Beijing has plenty of ammunition for a fight
US President Donald Trump sent a friendly message to China on Sunday as Chinese state media ramped up their rhetoric in the trade dispute with the US, recalling China’s Korean war mettle and warning Washington that it was becoming the enemy of a multipolar world.
“President Xi and I will always be friends, no matter what happens with our dispute on trade. China will take down its Trade Barriers because it is the right thing to do,” the US president tweeted.
“Taxes will become Reciprocal & a deal will be made on Intellectual Property. Great future for both countries!” Trump added.
Trump’s message came as the US and China are teetering on the brink of trade war and the Chinese side is putting a tough face.
In a commentary on Sunday, Xinhua News Agency said the trade tensions were a “fight between unilateralism and multilateralism, and a fight between protectionism and free trade”.
“The US is set to become a public enemy of global multilateralism,” it said.
The Global Times, a nationalist tabloid in the People’s Daily stable, called on China to prepare for the worst as the US sought to stop China’s rise.
“The same sort of strategic resolve that China had in the Korean war is being built up across the country to beat the Trump administration’s trade attack,” it said in an editorial on Saturday.
The comments follow the White House’s decision to impose 25 per cent punitive tariffs on more than 1,300 Chinese goods after the Office of the US Trade Representative accused China of forced technology transfers, discriminatory intellectual property policies and government involvement in outbound acquisitions.
