China is ready to 'eat bitterness' in the trade war. What about the US?

[Celerity]

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/china-is-ready-to-eat-bitterness-in-the-trade-war-what-about-the-us/



US President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz has morphed into a US-China trade war, with tariffs exceeding 10 percent on most countries now given a ninety-day reprieve while those on China are hiked to a dizzying 145 percent, following Beijing upping its levies on the United States to 84 percent. So what’s likely to come next? Well, for one, the White House appears to have badly miscalculated in thinking China’s leaders “want to make a deal” and would rush to the negotiating table.

“The US threat to escalate tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake and once again exposes the blackmailing nature of the US,” China’s commerce ministry said on Tuesday. “China will never accept this. If the US insists on its own way, China will fight to the end.” Almost exactly one year ago, in discussions I had in Beijing on the prospect of a US-China trade war under a future US president, officials repeatedly mentioned a secret weapon they held ready to wield: the ability of China and its people to “eat bitterness” or chiku.

What does that mean? Chiku is regularly raised by Chinese to describe their ability to endure hardships during difficult times, including in service of a supposed greater national goal. During the Mao Zedong era it was on display during the Great Leap Forward, the horrendously misguided policy that aimed to see China surpass the United Kingdom in steel production and that ultimately led to famine. More recently, this attitude was seen during China’s national campaign to stop the spread of COVID-19. And the fact is not lost on the authoritarian leaders in Beijing that the Trump administration will have to deal with growing pushback from the American people if, as expected, the trade war leads to inflation and job losses, while China will likely face less public pressure.

In a sign of how seriously China is taking the prospect of a trade war, an official compared China’s resolve—albeit indirectly—to that shown during armed conflict. On April 9, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, shared a video of Chinese President Xi Jinping solemnly saying that “intimidation or pressure will never work on the Chinese nation,” a clip from a speech that Xi gave in 2020 on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of China’s entry into the Korean War (official Chinese name: “The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea”).



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[Seeking Serenity]

1. Let's go then. Let's unite as a country to tell Winnie the Pooh to go intercourse himself!

[David__77]

2. Or... people here could unite against the danger at home.