President Donald Trump issued a stern warning to China on Monday to withdraw its retaliatory 34% tariff hike, saying that an additional 50% tariff would be imposed on Chinese goods by Tuesday if the tariff was not withdrawn. At least one expert is commending Trump’s escalating trade war with the U.S.’s largest trading partner, saying that America’s quarter-trillion-dollar trade deficit with China must be dealt with even if it means economic pain for U.S. citizens.
The standoff began on April 2, dubbed “Liberation Day,” when the Trump administration announced a 10% tariff hike on all goods imported into the U.S. from other countries. Trump further announced an additional reciprocal tariff on about 90 nations, including a 34% hike on China. Two days later, the communist regime announced a retaliatory tariff of 34% on American goods in response.
The tariff battle between the two largest economies in the world is showing no signs of abating, as Trump declared Monday on Truth Social. “If China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th. Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated!” If the Trump administration were to follow through with the threat, tariff increases on goods from America’s largest trading partner would equal 104% since the beginning of Trump’s term.
The impending tariffs, which are set to take effect this week, have led to massive tumult on Wall Street. Some economists are predicting that the rise in prices of consumer goods caused by the tariffs will add $3,800 of annual expenses for the average family.
Still, at least one expert says the economic volatility will be worth it, particularly in order to rectify the massive trade deficit that the U.S. has incurred with China. On Monday, author and China expert Gordon Chang, a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, joined “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” to analyze the unfolding standoff between the two world powers.
“[Trump’s tariff hike] is important because China right now is really out of ammunition,” he argued. “They’re the smaller economy. Their economy, even with their inflated reporting, is less than two-thirds the size of ours. And China is the trade surplus trader. Last year, [it] had a $295.4 billion merchandise trade surplus with [the] U.S. Countries can’t really do much in a trade war, and the only thing they can try and do is intimidate President Trump to back down. But President Trump is not backing down, and so I think Xi Jinping is in a very difficult position right now.”
Chang further contended that China desperately needs the American consumer market “especially now, because Xi Jinping has turned his back on consumption as the fundamental basis of the Chinese economy, which means his only way out of an increasingly serious situation is to export more. And he can’t replace the U.S. market, the largest in the world, and President Trump is just closing it off. So right now, Xi Jinping just does not have any options.”
Chang went on to assert that the American economy “can hold out for a long time” even with a rise in the price of consumer goods from China, and that the U.S. trade deficit with the communist regime must be addressed.
“[T]his has got to be done because we’re in an unsustainable situation,” he surmised. “America accounts for almost half of the world’s merchandise trade deficits. China accounts for almost half of the world’s merchandise trade surpluses. This just is not acceptable from any number of different viewpoints. And so I think President Trump gets high marks. Whatever happens, he gets high marks for trying to deal with this, something that his predecessors let slide for decades.”
As for the inevitable economic pain that Americans will feel as a result of the tariffs, Chang posited that it will be unavoidable due to a series of poor economic decisions made by past administrations.
“[A]s Americans,” he remarked, “we’ve got to ask ourselves, ‘Do we really think that we could get out of decades of misguided, really horrible trade policy and not bear some cost?’ Of course we’re going to have to do that, and President Trump has decided, I think, on the best way, which is to make sure that China doesn’t take over the American economy and take over the economies around the rest of the world. So, yes, this is the right move. It may look really ugly right now, but it’s absolutely necessary.”
Beyond the economic impact of the trade war, however, Chang expressed concern that too much of an economic squeeze on communist dictator Xi Jinping could result in armed conflict.
“This we ought to be concerned about, because Xi Jinping right now has an economy that’s not growing at the 5.0% pace that they reported for last year. It’s probably about zero,” he noted. “And with the actions that we have seen over the last couple of weeks, it’s probably heading to deep contraction territory. That means Xi Jinping may decide [to attack] Taiwan, Philippines, Japan, South Korea, India. He very well may decide to use it rather than lose it.”
Chang continued, “But also, we know that there are signs of instability at the top of the Communist Party. The infighting is getting intense. Xi Jinping may decide that war is in his interest — not to rally the Chinese people, because [he] knows that the Chinese people do not want war, but he might decide a war is in his personal interest to prevent other Communist Party figures from challenging or maybe even deposing him. So right now, I think the situation is extremely tense across China’s periphery.”
Chang concluded by expressing further worry that China’s recent aggressive military maneuvers may result in an unintended escalation of hostilities.
“I’m actually more concerned about something. Not that Xi Jinping wakes up some morning and says, ‘I’m invading the Philippines.’ But we’ve seen some very dangerous provocations in the last couple of weeks against South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, and Australia. And if one of those escalations goes wrong, I don’t think Xi Jinping will be able to control escalation, because right now he is configured China’s political system so that only the most hostile answers are considered to be acceptable, which means if something starts, it’s going to continue.”
AUTHOR
Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.
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