China Won’t Blink
It has been nearly a month since US president Donald Trump unleashed his tariffs armageddon, with China bearing the heaviest tariffs of 245%. It’s about time that we take a look at how China’s general public is handling the wrath of the homecoming US president.
If we are seeking one word to capture the general societal spirit, the word we are looking for would be “ease”, a stark contrast to the atmosphere generated by the tariff war during Trump’s first term. Yes, the Chinese official bodies are still routinely issuing stern warnings to the White House, but academia and the general public have learned to watch the situation with the ease of spectators in what they call a “blinking game” – and nobody sees China as the one who blinks first.
After Trump’s meeting with the Japanese delegation, Shen Yi, a Fudan University professor with over 8 million followers online, noted how Trump’s team screamed a “makeshift troupe” that “failed to offer incentives to countries willing to negotiate, but instead proposed conditions even more excessive than the punishment of tariffs.” Shen also highlighted the self-destruction Trump’s administration is inflicting on the US by shattering America’s image of omnipotence , thereby undermining the soft power once shielded the country.
On April 16, while daily tariff negotiations continued, Japanese media focused on a gift Japan had presented to Trump: a piggy bank featuring “Myaku-Myaku,” the mascot of the Osaka Expo, priced at around 62 US dollars — made in China.
In the arena of technology competition, China’s most-read private media outlet Guancha.cn published a commentary detailing China’s advantages in the rivalry. The author, Yan Mo, points to an urgent need of American tech giants to expand into China’s vast market.
Victims of Trump’s tariff frenzy, leading tech companies in the US are suffering from a rapidly shrinking market insuffient to generate returns on their R&D investment. On the other hand, their Chinese counterpart have no intention of slowing down. Yan also noted that China maintained a stronger edge in the AI sector, with or without Trump’s tariffs, thanks to its low electricity costs and more energy-efficient AI models such as DeepSeek.
One of the most widely circulated remarks among China’s leading economic intellectuals came from Peking University professor Justin Yifu Lin whose views are highly regarded among China’s top leadership .In speech he made during a recent internal seminar, he offered his forecast of the future global economic landscape. He argued that as the current turmoil stems from shifts in the global economic order, stability will only return with structural transformation.
Lin predicted that when China’s per capita GDP reaches half that of the United States, a new world order will emerge, bringing greater stability. Given that China’s population is four times that of the U.S., it will be a time when China’s total economic size reaches twice that of the U.S.
Lin calls the Fourth Industrial Revolution — characterized by AI, big data, and related technologies — a reset button that levels the playing field. With its abundant STEM talent pool, vast domestic market enabling economies of scale, and comprehensive industrial supply chains, China has no shortages of reasons to feel confident in this new race.
He concluded: “High-income countries account for only 16% of the world’s population, while China alone makes up 18%. If in the future, one billion Chinese people achieve modernization, it would usher in a brand-new, stable global economic order.”
Editor: Zhongxiaowen
