The White House said China is now facing up to a 245 percent tariff on imports to the U.S. “as a result of its retaliatory actions,” another escalation in a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
The top potential tariff is higher than the previously stated 145 percent and was referenced in a fact sheet published by the White House late on Tuesday.
It accompanied an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that launched an investigation into the “national security risks posed by U.S. reliance on imported processed critical minerals and their derivative products.”
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian was asked about the 245 percent rate at a press briefing on Wednesday. “You can ask the U.S. side for the specific tax rate figures,” Lin said, China News Network reported.
“This tariff war was initiated by the United States, and China’s necessary countermeasures are to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests and international fairness and justice, which are completely reasonable and lawful.”
Trump imposed a 10 percent tariff on imports from all countries. He has temporarily paused additional “reciprocal” rates set individually for each country depending on the trade barriers faced by the U.S. to allow time for negotiations on new deals.
The exception to that pause is China, which is facing increasingly higher tariffs from the U.S. and has responded in kind, among other countermeasures.
This week, China imposed more export controls on rare earths, which include materials used in high-tech products, aerospace manufacturing, and the defense sector.
Despite the eye-watering tariffs and tough rhetoric, both the U.S. and China have said they are open to talks on trade, though further tit-for-tat retaliation is likely in this conflict between two great powers.
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Are these tariffs even being implemented or are they just “announced”? I can only imagine the chaos that customs workers must be going through.
Always announced never implemented.
Trump is like an idiot bully who insists he commands ten big thugs! No twenty! No thirty and with guns! No thirty with guns and grenades and a tank!
They mean nothing.
But they are providing ample opportunity for places like China to show that they DO have real power.
It’s not China “facing” the tariffs, it’s Americans
Indeed and the US had lumped in nations who they would have previously called friends and fucked them as well.
Short term lots of nations will feel some.pain, longher term of China plays it’s cards right, the US continues it’s slide into irrelevance.
As an Australian i hope we pivot to Europe and build stronger relationships there but we have a long tradition of our tongue being stuck firmly up the arsehole of the US.
If Australia pivots to the EU, then that just means Australia will pivot to wherever the EU pivots, the heavily financialized US or the industrialized PRC. The EU has neither the immense finance Capital of the US nor the industrial capacity of the PRC, so it must maintain stronger ties with one of those options, and it’s increasingly clear which one the winds favor.
That’s 245%. Anyone else? 245% going, going, gone. Sold for 245%! Next!
China’s already said they wouldn’t retaliate with tariffs anymore, so I wonder what their response will be.
More export controls on rare earths, or maybe selling off US treasury bonds?
Sell the bonds and make maga cry harder. 'It worked for Japan and Canada.
October 2025: China will now face an ungabatillion percent tarrif! We can keep this going all day!
i am not sure what else the us thinks it can leverage to demand that high of a tarriff.
i’ve read trump say china needs us demand and consumption. i haven’t seen any facts and numbers to back that up.
Just a small note for clarity, but the US is not demanding a tariff from China. The US is imposing a tariff on goods from China, and US citizens are the ones that pay that. It’s not like Trump is asking China to fork over a bunch of money. He’s telling Americans that if they want Chinese goods they are going to have to pay even more. In theory, this would cause Americans to buy less of these goods because essentially they can’t afford them, and therefore China suffers, but money coming from the US is probably not going to affect China the way that increased tariffs will affect Americans.
Exports to US account for roughly 2% of China’s economy, it’s clearly not significant for China
2-3% is not small or inconsequential when you’re the worlds largest export economy. The reason China is well placed to take this hit is because unlike the US they’re very methodical and measured in the moves they make, and the party has command of the economy.
China’s growth was projected to be at around 5%, so even taking a full 2-3% hit would mean the economy would continue to grow. And as you rightly point out, the governance in China is very effective, and they have been preparing for this eventuality for a long time. The most likely scenario is that trade will be redirected, and the government will directly support parts of the economy that are affected by the decoupling.
It’s not insignificant by any stretch, but China was far more reliant on the US in the past. That’s why they have been building up the Belt and Road Initiative and BRICs, to build up alternative customers in case the US ever made a hard pivot. The PRC is more than willing to ride the gravy train of US money flowing in for as long as it can last, as they can spend that time building up alternative customers, but had this been the 90s this very well may have worked for Trump. Too little too late, though.
good point with the belt and road initiative as well as brics!
Thanks! That’s really been China’s whole strategy this time since Deng, rapidly improve the productive forces as quickly as possible and never be overly reliant on any ties, especially not the US, as the US is firmly anti-communist and will eventually make a hard break with the PRC (the US thought it would go the same way as the USSR to Russian Federation, which ended up being false).
The PRC isn’t doing BRICS and BRI for charity, nor for Imperialist control either. It’s doing it for customers, which it needs in the long run in order to not be isolated and reliant on the US.
China doesn’t face a 245% tariff. Us US individuals and small businesses face a 245% tariff.
Sure, but this lowers US consumer demand for goods produced in China, giving the PRC motivation to seek increased economic ties elsewhere. China is negatively impacted by this in the short term, though they are better equipped to handle it due to actually holding the productive forces in the equation.
The Chinese economy is not a pond, but an ocean. The ocean may have its calm days, but big winds and storms are only to be expected. Without them, the ocean wouldn’t be what it is. Big winds and storms may upset a pond, but never an ocean. Having experienced numerous winds and storms the ocean will still be there. It’s the same for China. After going through 5,000 years of trials and tribulations China is still here. Looking ahead China will always be here to stay.
-President Xi Jinping
I also really like Democracy is not an Ornament and Water Droplets Drilling Through Rock.
When I describe my awe upon seeing the power of droplets drilling through rock, I am praising those who have the willingness to rise each time one falls, and the moral character to sacrifice for overall success. I am expressing my admiration for those who develop a solid plan and then have the tenacity to see it through to the end.
Thanks for sharing this, this is cool. If Xi Jinping were not a political leader, I think he would be a poet. (Assuming he writes his own speeches, if not, whoever is amazing.)
Yep! He probably has some help, but many Chinese write in similarly flowery ways, especially those who rise through the ranks of the CPC due to how its structured.
He has a political advisor who helped him develop his thought and helped him write the book.
Wang Huning?
It lowers the ability for Americans to pay for those goods. China might be affected, but the Americans are getting screwed.
Sure, I agree that the US is fighting a losing battle and that the US Working Class will end up paying the most for it.
That’s the weird endgame here, the result will be stronger international China influence and less international US influence.
It’s like the Generals willfully losing against the Globetrotters.
It might have worked back in the 90s, when China was more reliant on the US, but now China has built up BRICs and the BRI, it has a much better industrial base and more customers. In the end, this dramatically benefits China’s standing.
The funniest outcome for this would be that China just stops trading with the US altogether and opens up trade with DPRK and Cuba.
Was China not trading with Korea and Cuba already? Its not like those two alone can replace the US.
Honestly I was going off the assumption that China had to recognize the Cuban blockade in order to trade with the US. I’m probably not as informed on that as I could be.
Cuba.
We’ll get the Cuban Funko Pop Crisis if all the treats are diverted there. That’s treats too close to the US border.
Funko Pops will overflow from the Cuban soil, spill into the Gulf of
MexicoAmericaFunko and revive the minor fishing business.
He still doesn’t realize how tariffs work.
This is all a front so Trump can claim he is hard on China. In reality, China bought a ton of his crypto with an agreement to implement tariffs. Trump only cares about lining his pocket and demonstrating power. This achieves both.
Source?
It’s no less bat shit crazy than what we do have sources for.
But being outlandish doesn’t make it more correct.
Agreed. That it’s even plausible is a sad state of affairs.
I don’t really think it’s plausible though, which is why I asked for a source. Buying large quantities of Trump crypto would be far too stupid for the China to do.
Ah. I figured it was plausible enough to ask for a source rather than out right rejected as bullshit.
I see now that was a “got a source to back up that outlandish claim?”
Yep, that’s more why I was asking rather than just calling BS.
just do a trade embargo at this point 🤣
But then he can’t say the wall just got 10ft higher again…
😆
The US literally thinks they’re invincible. The fallout when reality finally hits them will be delicious.
Half to a third of the U.S. The rest of us know full well how bad this is. I really hope Cali puts its tariff exemptions in place and Oregon and Washington follow suit because otherwise we’re going to see the worst recession in the country’s history
Cali tariff exemptions
Um, how?
The only way out of this at this point is … to get out.
If Trump manages to balkanize the US I’m never gonna doubt accelerationists again
This just feels like a teacher trying to punish a kid, who doesn’t give a fuck, with detention.
More like a kid trying to give a teacher detention
Why doesn’t he just make them infinity percent? You know, like the way children use the idea of infinity.
I dare you. I double dare you. I dare you times 100. I dare you times infinity.
It might as well be, except for the theater of it.
“Given that, at the current tariff level, U.S. exports to China are no longer commercially viable, China will not respond to any further tariff hikes by the U.S. on Chinese goods,” the ministry said.
The U.S’ tactics of weaponizing tariffs have become “a joke,” it said in a statement.
“If the U.S. keeps playing the numbers game of tariffs, China will ignore it,”
