China Has An Insidious 6 Point Plan To Defeat Donald Trump And Win The Economic War
Michael Snyder

The Chinese have no intention of giving in to President Trump and are vowing to “fight to the end”.  So that means that an economic war between the number one economy on the entire planet and the number two economy on the entire planet is officially on.  Yesterday, I warned my readers that imports from China were about to be hit with a 104 percent tariff, but because this number had not been reported by the mainstream media yet a lot of people didn’t believe me.  Of course this morning major news outlets all over the globe were using that number.  Here is just one example…

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that because China declined to lift its retaliatory tariff, the president’s additional 50% tariff levied on top of previously imposed tariffs of 20% and 34% took effect, bringing the total tariff on Chinese goods to 104%.

She added that the tariffs took effect at noon Eastern Time on Tuesday, with tariff collection set to begin on Wednesday. Leavitt said that U.S. trading partners should be coming to the administration with deals to improve trade terms.

“The president’s message has been simple and consistent from the beginning to countries around the world – bring us your best offers and he will listen,” Leavitt said during a White House press briefing Tuesday. “Deals will only be made if they benefit American workers and address our nation’s crippling trade deficits.”

Many were expecting the Chinese to back down, but that isn’t happening.

In fact, China’s Commerce Ministry has released a statement that ominously declares that they are ready to “fight to the end”…

China’s Commerce Ministry said it “resolutely opposes” U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of escalating tariffs, and vowed to take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests.

The comments came after Trump said he would impose an additional 50% duty on U.S. imports from China on Wednesday, if Beijing does not withdraw the 34% tariff it imposed on American products last week.

“The U.S. threat to escalate tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake,” the statement said, according to a CNBC translation. “China will never accept it. If the U.S. insists on its own way, China will fight to the end.”

I have a feeling that phrase comes from the very top, because a different Chinese spokesperson used almost the exact same language…

At a regular news conference on Tuesday, Lin Jian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said Beijing would take “necessary measures” against U.S. tariff threats, according to a CNBC translation of reports in Chinese state media.

He reiterated the Commerce Ministry’s statement, “If U.S. insists on waging a tariff war, a trade war, China will fight till the end.”

What we are witnessing is a real life game of economic chicken.

So what happens if neither side blinks?

The truth is that we could soon have a real nightmare on our hands.

According to Bloomberg, “two influential state-linked Chinese bloggers” have published identical lists of “countermeasures” that the Chinese government is prepared to implement…

While China hasn’t said how it would respond if Trump follows through on his threat, two influential state-linked Chinese bloggers posted an identical set of countermeasures that they said authorities are considering. They include raising tariffs on US farm products, a ban on Hollywood movies and investigating American firms’ intellectual property gains in the country.

Without a doubt, some of these “countermeasures” would definitely cause quite a bit of pain for our economy…

• Suspending cooperation with the U.S. on fentanyl (which Beijing itself helped flood into American communities),

• Jacking up tariffs on American farm goods like soybeans and sorghum,

• Blocking U.S. poultry,

• Clamping down on American service industries,

• Investigating U.S. intellectual property in China,

• And, of course, reducing/banning U.S. films.

In addition, the Chinese have already placed new restrictions on rare earth elements and have added more U.S. companies to the “unreliable entities list”.

On top of everything else, it appears that a major currency devaluation could be right around the corner…

The People’s Bank of China on Tuesday set the midpoint rate for onshore yuan at 7.2038 per dollar, the weakest level since September 2023, according to data provider Wind Information. The yuan is allowed to trade within a 2% band of this midpoint rate.

The yuan’s weakening is a “big signal,” Robin Brooks, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia,” “this is Beijing politely saying this is getting a little too much, we are putting you on notice, we can devalue if we want and bigger things may come if you keep this up.”

“This is a clear shot across the bow of Washington,” Brooks added.

Anyone that suggests that the Chinese are not able to hurt us does not know what they are talking about.

Yes, we can really hurt China, but they can really hurt us too.

Wouldn’t it be better if we could all just find a way to get along?

Because the reality of the matter is that history has shown us over and over again that trade wars have a way of evolving into shooting wars.

Interestingly, two Chinese soldiers that were apparently fighting for the Russian military have just been captured by Ukraine…

The Ukrainian military has captured two Chinese men fighting with the Russian army in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday.

Ukraine has information that there are “significantly more” Chinese nationals fighting alongside the Russians in the more than three-year war, Zelenskyy said, adding that he has asked his top diplomat “to immediately contact Beijing and find out how China is going to react to this.”

It appears that the two men that were just captured were part of a group of six Chinese soldiers that got into a firefight with Ukrainian forces…

Zelenskyy said a clash with Chinese soldiers occurred near the villages of Tarasivka and Bilohorivka in the Donetsk region, where six Chinese military personnel engaged Ukrainian troops. Two Chinese were taken prisoner, Zelenskyy said at a news conference in Kyiv alongside visiting Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever.

At this point, there is no indication that these soldiers were from the Chinese military.

Instead, it appears that they were actually part of the Russian military.

Just like Ukraine does, Russia hires soldiers from all over the world…

However, this is not evidence of a state-sanctioned deployment by China.

Russia is known to have recruited mercenaries from around the world to fuel its fight to seize control of Ukraine.

Many have come from Cuba, India, Yemen and several African countries, attracted by promises of significant cash incentives.

The conflict in Ukraine definitely has a global flavor to it, because there are literally soldiers from dozens of different countries involved in the fighting.

Of course the same thing could be said about the war in the Middle East as well.

Now we have added a worldwide economic war to our troubles, and I have a feeling that a lot more surprises are coming in the months ahead.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.