Alwaght - Chinese state-run newspapers downplayed US trade war policies against Beijing, saying Trump’s belief that a fall in Chinese stocks was a sign of his measures was “wishful thinking”.
On Monday, the overseas edition of the 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”.
An editorial in the official China Daily underscored an increasingly aggressive stance adopted by Chinese state media against Trump, a shift from their previous approach of tempering any direct criticism against the US president, Reuters reported.
China’s stock market was performing poorly before the U.S. administration imposed tariffs, said the English-language newspaper, asserting that the downturn was partly due to Beijing’s attempts to cut corporate debt.
The paper said Trump’s claim that “tariffs are working big time” was undermined by data showing the US trade deficit climbed $3 billion to $46.3 billion in June, the first increase in four months.
The daily referred to a Saturday Tweet by Trump which said “Tariffs are working far better than anyone anticipated. China market has dropped 27 percent in last four months.”
The China Daily is often used by the government to communicate its message to an international audience.
In a separate commentary, in the People’s Daily overseas edition, a researcher at the Commerce Ministry reiterated this stance, saying China was strong and resilient enough to weather the trade dispute.
“We absolutely have reason to believe that during this complex trade friction, and relying on the domestic market, China can continue to enhance its leading position in the global economic and industrial system,” researcher Mei Xinyu wrote.
China proposed retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion worth of US goods ranging from liquefied natural gas (LNG) to some aircraft on Friday, following the Trump administration’s plan for a higher 25 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.
Despite the US tariffs, a Reuters poll of economists forecast China’s exports to have grown in July.
