Ever since the markets first got a whiff about a trade war coming up, the scenario has been more or less the same: the United States have had qualms with other countries’ (most notably China’s) trade policies and have threatened and imposed tariffs on them in order to force them into compliance. China has met the US duties tit for tat so far, though a new round of tariffs worth $200 billion is expected from Donald Trump and it appears China is ready to change the narrative.
Although Chinese officials have stated multiple times that a global trade war is bad for international business and that they would like to avoid it, joining in every negotiations session available to them, now a key Chinese tabloid published an article about China’s readiness to go on the offensive against the States. China is a major supplier to US manufacturers, so even if the country cannot impose as much in tariffs against the US (because China simply doesn’t import as much American products as it exports there), they can make life harder for American companies.