CCP to adjust economic policies over tariffs

Beijing fears losing its grip over Shein; HSBC chairman meets PRC premier

Observing China is the essential newsletter to understand the UK-PRC relationship, explained in the context of global developments.

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The rapid fire updates and bizarre insults to come out of the tariff tangle are reminiscent of a WhatsApp group chat which has just revealed salacious university campus gossip, except the effects are likely to be far less ephemeral, and much less fun.

At the time of writing – and goodness knows it may change by the time this newsletter is published – Washington has imposed 125% tariffs on Beijing, which in turn has imposed 84% retaliatory tariffs. But I will also point you to some of the sideline analysis in the event that you are not too fatigued to keep reading about it. During an interview with Fox News, JD Vance, Vice President of the United States (US), defended the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump, President of the US, on Beijing, saying: ‘We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture’.

Analysis in The Times makes the case that Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) believes that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will be best placed to emerge the victor in the tariff chaos caused by Trump.

Meanwhile, Pedro Sanchez, the Prime Minister of Spain, will visit the PRC and Vietnam this week to strengthen trade ties to fight off the effects of tariffs. Beijing has approached both India and Australia to ‘join hands’ against Trump’s tariffs.

Welcome back to Observing China.