China has shrugged off the latest U.S. tariff hike, dismissing the Trump administration’s threats as a “meaningless tariff numbers game.”
Newsweek reached out to the White House by email with a request for comment.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump’s move last week to impose tariffs on scores of countries and regions wiped trillions of dollars off Wall Street and shook global markets. He insisted the move, which raised trade duties paid by importers on foreign goods, was necessary to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. and end “unfair” taxation of American products.
Although the administration later rolled back duties on most of those targeted, pending a 90-day pause, the higher 125-percent tax on China has remained largely intact, further escalating the trade war Trump launched against the world’s second-largest economy during his first term.
The White House later clarified that critical electronics made in China would revert to the 20 percent tariff announced in March, citing the country’s role as a major source of chemical precursors for the deadly opioid fentanyl.
What To Know
Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, attends a meeting with Vietnamese President Luong Cuong, unseen, at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam, Tuesday, April 15, 2025.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, attends a meeting with Vietnamese President Luong Cuong, unseen, at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam, Tuesday, April 15, 2025.
Minh Hoang/Associated Press
A fact sheet released by the White House on Tuesday appeared to further increase tariffs on some imports from China to 245 percent, “as a result of its retaliatory actions.”
The press release also announced an investigation into the national security risks stemming from the U.S.’s dependence on foreign sources of critical minerals—China is a major producer of rare earths and other materials used in American supply chains..
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for China’s Commerce Ministry dismissed the additional tariff hike, telling reporters that the move “fully exposes the fact that the United States has become irrational in instrumentalizing and weaponizing tariffs.”
“China has repeatedly stated its position on the unilateral tariffs imposed by the United States, and it has ignored the U.S.’s meaningless tariff numbers game,” the commerce official said.
He said beijing would take “countermeasures” and see the trade war “through to the very end” if Washington continued to “infringe on China’s rights and interests.”
What People Are Saying
Adam Posen, head of the Peterson Institute think tank, told The Guardian newspaper: “I think it was a big mistake, this Chinese escalation, because they’re playing with a pair of twos. What do we lose by the Chinese raising tariffs on us? We export one-fifth to them of what they export to us, so that is a losing hand for them.”
What’s Next
Neither the U.S. nor China is likely to back down soon and additional tit-for-tat trade broadsides remain likely.
Although China’s economy continues to face uncertainty amid a prolonged property crisis, high local government debt and weak consumer spending, it performed better than expected in the first quarter of the year, according to official data released this week.
Meanwhile, a rising risk of recession adds pressure on Trump to strike a deal with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
