According to reporting by Reuters, a state-run Chinese newspaper, The People’s Daily, is saying that the current US-China trade frictions are a result of waning hegemony as China begins to challenge the US as the world’s largest economy.
Key quotes
“China said this week that it would slap additional 25 percent tariffs on $16 billion worth of U.S. imports in retaliation against levies on Chinese goods imposed by the United States. But the People’s Daily said in an editorial that China’s rapid economic growth and its position at the center stage of global trade is the “fundamental fact” that should be considered when looking at frictions between the world’s two biggest economies, with Beijing emerging as an “unprecedented opponent” for the United States.
“No matter what China does, in the eyes of the United States, China’s development has already ‘damaged the supremacy of the United States’,” the People’s Daily said. “Against this kind of ‘opponent’, the United States must adopt two methods – first, use the opponent to encourage itself and exhort mass political support for ‘making America great again,’ and second, curb the opponent’s supremacy at every level,” it added.
The editorial was responding to claims the tough trade measures implemented by the United States were provoked by China’s “strategic overconfidence”.”
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