CHINESE MEDIA CALLS TRUMP ‘DECEITFUL’
US president starring in his own street-fighter style drama of extortion, intimidation, says People’s Daily
CHINESE state media yesterday lambasted United States President Donald Trump’s trade policies in an unusually personal attack, and sought to reassure investors anxious about China’s economy as growth concerns battered its financial markets.
China’s strictly controlled news outlets have frequently rebuked the US and the Trump administration as the trade conflict has escalated, but they have largely refrained from specifically targeting Trump.
The latest criticism from the overseas edition of the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper singled out Trump, saying he was starring in his own “street fighter-style deceitful drama of extortion and intimidation”.
Trump’s desire for others to play along with his drama is “wishful thinking”, said a commentary on the paper’s front page, arguing that the US had escalated trade friction with China and turned international trade into a “zero-sum game”.
“Governing a country is not like doing business,” said the paper, adding that Trump’s actions imperilled the national credibility of the US.
The US and China implemented tariffs on US$34 billion (RM138.72 billion) worth of each other’s goods last month.
Washington is expected to soon implement tariffs on an additional US$16 billion of Chinese goods, which China has already said it will match immediately.
On Friday, China’s finance ministry unveiled new sets of additional tariffs on 5,207 goods imported from the US worth US$60 billion. That move was in response to the Trump administration’s proposal of a 25 per cent tariff on US$200 billion worth of Chinese imports.
China’s stocks were lower yesterday as Beijing’s latest tariff threats escalated the tit-for-tat Sino-US trade war, while the yuan weakened after briefly edging up despite the central bank’s latest efforts to shore up the tumbling currency.
A flurry of articles in Chinese state media emphasised the resilience of China’s economy and downplayed concerns about the impact of the Sino-US trade war.
“Market participants foresee a relatively stable Chinese currency in the near term, without fear of impacts from the US-China trade dispute.
“They expect solid economic growth momentum amid policy fine-tuning,” said an article in the official English-language China Daily newspaper, citing Chinese economists.