China isn't the only one cautiously watching the next actions that the US will do, following the imposition of tariffs placed on $200 billion Chinese goods. The US is also expected to be affected; that is, US companies which are operating in China are expected to bear the brunt of the tariffs as well.
A lot of sectors in China have taken the brunt of the disputes, and grumbling can be heard, albeit in a low tone. However, Trump's tariffs would multiply the stress more than the country can bear, according to Washington Post. But these companies aren't mostly China-owned; some, if not most, of them, are foreign companies operating on Chinese soil.
Some of them are American companies caught in the crossfire.
What they could do is what everyone's been dreading. Executives, looking for ways to save their profits while trying to save the companies, are going to take extreme measures everyone else dreads: re-tool supply chains as well as enforce higher prices.
This, however, could be the US forcing China's hand to fight smart. The US inevitably relies on Chinese labor because of its relatively cheap upkeep. Without securing the interests of these companies, Trump went ahead and enforced his tariff policies in China as well as other countries. This has the unintended effect of enforcing the same tariffs on US companies as well.
These US companies have to bear with costs that are more harmful than helpful as well as added scrutiny from Chinese authorities. Operating in China-according to SCMP-has become increasingly stifling and difficult, even forcing an executive to say that it's a 'precision strike.' That it may be, but from the looks of things, it is the US who has unknowingly created such a strike on its own companies operating in China, far from the intended effect of the tariffs.
James Zimmerman, a Perkins Coie law office partner in Beijing, said that this move by China was more because of timing rather than anything. This stroke of genius had the unintended effect of a subtle retaliation from China, as well as the added benefit of enforcing delays in imports and approvals of trade packages.
The comment of Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying best sums up what the US has forced China to do. She said that it would be best for people to 'wake up' if they think that China would fold in the face of 'groundless accusations' as well as threatening policies from the US.
