China? Good question.
“China is willing to strengthen solidarity and coordination with all parties, join hands to deal with them, jointly resist unilateral bullying, safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, and defend international justice,” according to an editorial in the Global Times, a propaganda outlet for the Chinese Communist Party.
Fine. Let there be no more “unilateral bullying” in the world, no more violation of rights, and no more injustice. The Chinese party-state can lead by example, since it is one of the worst offenders at home and abroad. Show us, please, what complete rejection of totalitarian aims and practices in favor of a night-watchman state looks like.
Bullying
Words can be bullied and abused. Words like “rights” and “justice” can be emptied of meaning or mangled to mean their opposite as the abuser simultaneously tries to hijack the moral prestige of the displaced usage and meaning.
In the CCP handbook, “unilateral bullying” means things like opposing China’s unilateral bullying. However one may view President Trump’s tumultuous tariff tactics as directed against China in particular, one must admit that these have not emerged in a vacuum. The Chinese Communist Party has not devoted the years since Nixon or since Clinton to defending “international justice” or national or local justice, safeguarding the rights or persons and trading partners, joining hands with all the peoples of the earth in peace and harmony, throwing daisies in the air, or what have you.
In an op-ed with Xi Jinping’s byline for a widely read Vietnamese newspaper, Nhan Dan, Xi says: “Trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere. Our two countries should resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and an open and cooperative international environment.”
The injunction to be “multilateral” means don’t do any separate deals with Trump and the United States. Don’t be unilaterally or bilaterally embarrassing China or China will punish you (i.e., even more than usual) (“China Threatens Countries Not to Cut Deals with Trump: ‘Compromise Cannot Be Respected,’ ” Breitbart, April 21, 2025).
Tiger skin
The Global Times cites the words of an on-message spokesman for the China Ministry of Commerce: “Appeasement behavior will not bring peace, nor will compromise earn respect. Pursuing short-term, self-serving interests by harming others’ interests in exchange for so-called ‘exemptions’ is akin to making a pact with the tiger for its skin—it will ultimately leave all parties empty-handed, harming others without benefiting oneself, the spokesperson said….
“In particular, China is firmly opposed to any party striking a deal at the expense of the Chinese side. If such a situation arises, China will never accept it and will take countermeasures in a resolute and reciprocal manner.”
In sum, don’t revert to the “law of the jungle,” the People’s Republic of China admonishes us.
China? China.
