China believes that U.S. President Donald Trump is bluffing in his announcement that he would impose US$500-billion tariffs on imported Chinese products.
Instead of answering back, the Chinese Government remains mum about the issue and does not pay much attention to it. Also, the Chinese media were told not to take such issues seriously and not to overly report the so-called trade war between China and U.S. so as not to cause alarm among the populace.
ING Bank's Chief China Economist Iris Pang said that the most possible reason over Beijing's silence on President Trump's statement is that China is resisting to respond a statement that is probably a bluff.
"It won't bring any concerns unless a clear timeline of implementation is released," Pang said.
Pang added that the imposition of a US$500-billion tariff is not something new of a tactic to divert the public's attention away from President Trump's recent meeting with Russia President Vladimir Putin wherein the former gained widespread criticism. Many called this as a desperate move of the U.S. against China.
In an editorial from People's Daily, it was cited that the U.S. will be "hoisted by its own petard" with this ongoing trade war with China.
"It's necessary for China to give the U.S. a head-on, painful attack so that it could truly realize that its trade war is a disaster for the U.S., other countries, and the whole world," the editorial said.
Even fellow Americans are not agreeable to the tariff policy of President Trump. Some experts from the U.S. Federal Reserve believe that such a move is not really smart and can, in fact, hurt the U.S. economy instead of that of China.
As an earlier manifestation, the markets around the world dropped after the statement of President Trump. Many traders are afraid that this will lead to a full-blown worldwide trade war. Some trade experts worldwide cited that the statement of President Trump about the US$500-billion tariff on Chinese goods have not done any positive effect to the world trade; instead, it even produced adverse effects.
Meanwhile, China's silence over the matter has helped the situation not to escalate into something disastrous to the trade market. Traders agreed that China should remain mum about the issue because it is obvious that President Trump was just desperately bluffing.
In 2017, around US$500-billion worth of Chinese products were imported to the U.S., leading to a deficit in the trade industry of around US$376-billion. From January 2018 to May 2018, around US$205-billion worth of U.S. goods were imported to China, leading a deficit of US$152-billion.
