“They hit us, so we hit them back.” Responding to the latest U.S. response to China’s response to Trump’s recent tariffs on China, the People’s Republic of China has hiked tariffs on U.S. goods “from 34 percent to 125 percent and imposed export controls on seven critical minerals that are essential to the US defense industry….
“The United States cannot produce the designated minerals at a sufficient scale and exempted them from tariffs in recognition of their importance. The PRC accounted for approximately 70 percent of US rare earth imports from 2020 to 2023 and approximately 70 percent of world mine production of rare earths in 2024…. The PRC Ministry of Commerce stated that the PRC ‘will fight to the end’ and described the US threat of additional tariffs as ‘blackmail.’ This came after the PRC imposed additional export controls against the United States acquiring other critical materials in December 2024 and February 2025 in response to US trade measures” (China-Taiwan Weekly Update, ISW, April 11, 2025).
The U.S. tariffs on China are currently “a minimum tariff rate of 145 percent on all imports to the United States,” The New York Times reports (April 10, 2025). “White House officials clarified on Thursday that the 125 percent tariff the president announced on Wednesday was in addition to a 20 percent added to the country since President Trump returned to office.”
This tally slightly contradicts other reporting (quoted below) that finds the “effective tariff rate” on China to be “about 156 per cent.”
Decoupling from China would be a terrible hardship for fat Americans forced to work in factories, China chides.
The CCP has released AI-generated propaganda videos to register its discontent with Trump’s tariffs and persuade Americans to urge their government to return to the status quo ante. In one video, tubby Americans toil in a cramped factory. In another, Trump, Musk, Vance, and others are depicted making sneakers in a similar American Factory (as a sign on the factory wall duly informs viewers). Decoupling from China would be a bad idea, seems to be the point; best let China handle all the slave labor. Of course, there’s a big difference between actual slave labor, such as China inflicts on the Uyghurs and others, and perhaps unpleasant employment that an employee can walk away from anytime.
Are tariffs on China a test of China’s ability to endure sanctions should it try to forcibly annex Taiwan? Or: “Will Trump’s tariffs lead to an emboldened Beijing in the Taiwan Strait?” (South China Morning Post, April 12, 2025).
“If the current tariff is sustained, and China is able to weather this difficult period, it will definitely boost Beijing’s confidence in facing potential Western sanctions in a future cross-strait war,” said international relations professor Zhiqun Zhu, from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.
“Regardless, Beijing has already taken US involvement and sanctions into account when preparing for the Taiwan scenario. The significance of any additional tariffs will be marginal,” he added.
Washington has imposed tariffs of 145 per cent on Chinese imports so far, bringing the effective tariff rate to about 156 per cent—close to the punitive amount President Donald Trump previously threatened if Beijing were to attack Taiwan.
In any case, whether China finally does try to seize Taiwan by whatever methods remains “a complicated political and military decision for Beijing….” Meanwhile, China keeps ratcheting up the pressure on the island.
The People’s Republic of China doesn’t recognize the independence of the Republic of China even though the ROC has been governing itself as a country, independently, since the communists won the civil war on the mainland in 1949 and the Kuomintang and others fled to Taiwan. To appease China, many governments around the world, not excluding the United States, do not at present formally recognize the ROC.
