As the tit-for-tat continues between Chinese dictator Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump over the U.S. president's sweeping tariffs, most experts agree that if the final push comes to final shove, the ChiComs in Beijing will be left holding the short end of the stick.
Put simply, the Communist giant's economy was already in a precarious position before this whole thing began, and it's only going to worsen the longer this trade war — yes, by definition, it's a trade war — continues.
But, as Ryan Hass of the Brookings Institution posted on X earlier in April:
Anyone advising Trump that Xi will beg for forgiveness is committing malpractice. That is not the mood or the plan in Beijing now.
Xia Baolong, a senior Chinese official who oversees Hong Kong and Macao, lashed out in a televised speech shortly after China opted to hike its tariff on imports of U.S. goods to 125 percent in retaliation after Trump’ increased tariffs on Chinese goods to 145 percent in response to China's previous increase, calling Trump's move “brutally unreasonable”:
The US isn’t after our tariffs but our very survival. The US has repeatedly contained and suppressed Hong Kong … and this will eventually backfire on itself.
Translation — in my not so humble opinion:
Yes, "this will eventually backfire on itself," but when it does backfire, it's going to backfire on China. The Trump administration knows it. Dictator Xi Jinping and his pals in Beijing know it. Trump knows they know it, and Xi and his pal know Trump knows they know it.
Hence, it's clear that Tuesday's outburst by a high-ranking Chinese Communist Party official — which would not have happened without Xi's blessing — is the clearest sign yet that while China continues to bluster, the boys in Beijing are beginning to crack under the pressure.
That is not to suggest that Beijing will come to a logical decision anytime in the near future. On the contrary, Xi & Co. could get really obstinate and do God knows what. After all, it wouldn't be the first or last time.
Xia Baolong's blustering speech was off the charts:
Let those peasants in the United States wail in front of the 5,000 years of Chinese civilization. The Chinese people do not cause trouble, nor are they afraid of trouble. Pressure, threats and blackmail are not the right way to deal with China.
Memo to Xia:
Yep, after 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, the citizens of the most populous country on the planet find themselves under the thumb of a brutal communist dictatorship — many of them subjected to labor camps, "education" camps, and worse. And of course the Chinese people "don't cause trouble." When or if they do, they're likely never to be seen again, so please.
So where do we — and the world — go from here?
What will be the final outcome of Trump's efforts to justifiably rebalance the scale of world trade? While prognostications are plenty on both sides of the divide, the answer remains unknowable.
In other words, either buckle up, or at least don't unfasten your seatbelt anytime soon.
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