Donald Trump was the first to back down in the tariff war gainst China when he admitted to the press on April 22 that the surcharges imposed on Beijing were "very high" and would "come down substantially." He had already faced a double setback during the week of April 7: the market downturn sanctioned the economic nonsense of his all-out tariff war, and China, stung in its national pride, responded sharply with retaliatory measures. Hence the American billionaire's umpteenth about-turn on April 9, in the form of a double backflip.

Magnanimously, he offered a 90-day pause to all those who rushed to negotiate – as he put it crudely – but with one major exception: Chinese products would be subjected to a stratospheric 145% tax, which was later abandoned in a new twist on April 12 for electronic products. The reason for this colossal and prohibitive tariff? Beijing dared to respond to the previous tariff by applying the same 84% rate to American exports.

The second salvo from the Chinese government was swift: on April 11, it announced an increase from 84% to 125% of tariffs on American products. Beijing then declared: "High tariffs(...) runs counter to basic economic principles and common sense, and is simply an act of unilateral bullying and coercion," reitering that China will "fight to the end."

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