The Chinese Foreign Ministry warned the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump to avoid taking the Communist Party’s “goodwill for granted” and suggested “no one will win a trade war” after Trump announced a plan to impose a ten-percent tariff on Chinese goods on Monday.
Trump made the tariff promise in remarks published to his social media site, Truth Social, in the context of the ongoing fentanyl crisis in the United States. He further suggested imposing tariffs on Canada and Mexico for not doing enough to curb drug production and trafficking.
“Representatives of China told me that they would institute their maximum penalty, that of death, for any drug dealers caught doing this but, unfortunately, they never followed through,” Trump wrote, “and drugs are pouring into our Country, mostly through Mexico, at levels never seen before.”
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“Until such time as they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America,” he asserted. Trump had previously promised a separate 60-percent tariff on Chinese goods if elected president during the 2024 campaign.
Regarding North America specifically, Trump vowed that, on Inauguration Day, he will sign an executive order “to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders.”
“This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!” he continued. “Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!”
Migrants walk along the Huixtla highway after departing Tapachula, southern Mexico, hoping to reach the country’s northern border and ultimately the United States, on November 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
The Chinese Foreign Ministry initially did not respond to the comments during its regular press briefing Tuesday. A spokesman later issued a statement discouraging Trump from adopting the policies.
“China on Tuesday urged the US not to take China’s goodwill for granted and work to ensure that the hard-won positive dynamics will stay in the China-US counternarcotics cooperation,” the Chinese state propaganda newspaper Global Times reported, paraphrasing the Foreign Ministry.
“About the issue of US tariffs on China, China believes that China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial in nature. No one will win a trade war or a tariff war,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying in a statement to the Global Times. The spokesman went on to claim that China had “carried out extensive and in-depth counternarcotics cooperation with the US” despite being the source of many of the precursor chemicals later used in the production of fentanyl.
In February, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that it was documenting over 150 deaths a day in America as a result of synthetic opioids, driven in large part by the growing prevalence of fentanyl in the country. Many of those deaths involved the inadvertent consumption of fentanyl, mixed into other drugs in fatal quantities. China plays a major role in the production of fentanyl through cooperation with Mexican drug cartels to produce fentanyl in North America.
The Chinese government vehemently denies any role in the fentanyl crisis, blaming inferior American “culture” for the issue.
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Separately, at an event promoting more Chinese dominance of global supply chains, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng lamented what he called the “fragmentation of the world economy” and a “new period of turmoil and change,” presumably looming in the expectation that Trump will be inaugurated into the presidency in January. Han encouraged an audience of business leaders, including representatives of the American tech company Apple, to “build consensus and strengthen links to contribute to maintaining the stability of the global supply chains,” according to the South China Morning Post.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang similarly addressed the venue, the “China International Supply Chain Expo,” “opposing all forms of decoupling and firmly upholding stable and unimpeded global industrial and supply chains.”
“China is a key link in global industrial and supply chains and will continue to take concrete actions to maintain the stability and smooth operation of these chains,” Li promised, according to the state-run China Daily.
“Exclusiveness leads nowhere, while openness is the right path forward,” Li warned, adding that “protectionist moves and overstretching of security are harming global industrial and supply chains,” without naming Trump specifically.
Li also recruited international corporations to “be steadfast defenders” of China’s dominance of supply chains and “continue firmly supporting economic globalization.”
This photo released by the Casa Grande Police Department, shows a collagen supplement bottle that concealed approximately 500,000 fentanyl pills that were found in an SUV pulled over for speeding on Interstate 10 in Pinal County, Arizona, on May 23, 2022. (Casa Grande Police Department via AP)
Beijing has intensified its defense of economic globalization in light of Trump’s electoral victory in November. Genocidal dictator Xi Jinping himself pressured foreign countries to resist calls for economic nationalism during a tour of South America this month, making stops at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru and the G20 summit in Brazil. In his speech to the G20, Xi demanded the parties assembled “oppose unilateralism and protectionism.”
“We need to improve global financial governance and build a world economy characterized by stability,” Xi lectured, adding later, “We need to improve global trade governance and build a world economy characterized by openness.”
“It is important to avoid politicizing economic issues, avoid fragmenting the global market, and avoid taking protectionist moves in the name of green and low-carbon development,” Xi he added.