Imposing additional tariffs on China’s products is “a stupid and wrong move taken by Washington,” the state-run Chinese newspaper Global Times claimed in an op-ed on Friday.
The news outlet referred to media reports claiming that White House officials have revised their thinking about whether to eliminate some tariffs or maybe impose new ones on Beijing in light of China's military exercises around Taiwan. Beijing kicked off the drills in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week.
The Global Times noted that in the past few months, the US has repeatedly sent “contradictory signals on the tariff issue”.
“One minute, it says it's considering scrapping some tariffs on China. But the next, it says it'll keep tariffs as leverage in the power game against China. The whole process is like one-man face-changing show performed by Washington in front of the world”, according to the newspaper.
Arguing that Washington's "tariff war" is “indeed going nowhere”, the Global Times blamed the White House for “always thinking about ‘removing tariffs’ in exchange for something”.
“The US is so narcissistic that it thinks one glance from it could unsettle China, making China sway by considerations of gain and loss and thus be hurried to make concessions. But frankly speaking, few people in China care about these messages, so they can hardly cause any waves. Chinese society is already tired of the show the US has put on,” the news outlet pointed out.
As for the latest alleged move by Washington regarding tariffs on China, it is “some kind of response to the current situation in the Taiwan Straits,” the Global T,imes asserted.
The newspaper urged the US “to unconditionally remove all the additional tariffs imposed on China as soon as possible”, something that the Global Times claimed is in the US national interest and “shows its responsibility to the world as a great power”.
“Washington must not act like an inferior man and use the tariffs to bargain with China or even blackmail China. Otherwise, it will surely face setbacks,” the outlet concluded.
This followed Reuters citing unnamed source as saying that President Joe Biden has not yet decided on whether to slap more tariffs on China or scrap the levies, with all of his options still on the table.
More than 2,200 import categories, including many essential chemicals and industrial components, had been granted tariff exemptions by the Trump administration, but they were set to expire as soon as Biden assumed office in January 2021. Only 352 of them have been reinstated by US Trade Representative Katherine Tai. She has reportedly been pushed to greatly raise the numbers by business organizations and more than 140 US politicians.
In 2018 and 2019, the tariffs were imposed by the Trump administration on thousands of Chinese imports valued then at $370 billion to pressure China over what the 45th US president claimed to be the theft of American intellectual property.