China expert reveals why Xi won't budge on tariffs with Trump
Chinese President Xi Jinping is navigating a political tightrope, where picking up the phone to call President Trump and discuss his country's ongoing trade war with the U.S. could draw fire from fellow Communist Party leaders, China expert Gordon Chang told FOX Business on Thursday.
"Picking up the phone and calling President Trump would be the economically rational thing to do… but Xi Jinping has configured the Chinese political system so that only the most hostile answers are considered to be acceptable, which means he's boxed himself in," Chang said on "Mornings with Maria."
"He can't do that, because if he does, his Communist Party fellow leaders, they're going to criticize him, so right now, China's in a position where it can't do what it absolutely needs to do."
SCOTT BESSENT BLASTS CHINA'S RETALIATORY TARIFF PLAY AS LOSING MOVE
The "Plan Red: China's Project to Destroy America" author sided with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who blasted China's Wednesday trade war escalation as a "loser" move.
"They are the surplus country," Bessent said Wednesday. "Their exports to the U.S. are five times our exports to China. They can raise their tariffs, but so what?"
On that note, Chang said China "doesn't have any cards in this" game, adding that, while the Chinese are "holding a pair of twos," Trump has a "royal straight flush."
"The point here is that the Chinese think, ‘We can intimidate Trump, we can coerce him into surrendering preemptively,’ and Trump yesterday said, ‘[Here's] 125% tariffs. I'm not being coerced. I'm not being intimidated. You, China, you're the ones who have to back down,'" he added.
China increased tariffs on U.S. imports from 34% to 84% in response to President Trump hiking tariffs against the country to 104% at midnight on Wednesday, with Chinese officials vowing to fight "to the end" amid the ongoing trade war.
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Trump retaliated with another hike on Chinese imports the same day, bringing the percentage to 125%.
China's 84% tariff took effect Thursday.