Chenxi Shen
On April 9, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a significant escalation in the ongoing trade conflict with China, raising tariffs on Chinese imports to 125 percent. Merely hours earlier, Beijing had declared its own retaliatory measure – raising tariffs on a range of U.S. goods to 84 percent, effective April 10 at 12:00 p.m. This tit-for-tat dynamic has become increasingly emblematic of the current state of China-U.S. relations, marked by rising tensions and shrinking avenues for compromise.
China’s response was swift and assertive. Beyond economic retaliation, Beijing filed a formal complaint against the United States through the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement mechanism, signaling a willingness to utilize both legal and institutional tools.
Public messaging from Chinese state entities has also grown notably firm. The People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party, echoed a long-standing narrative: “China does not want to fight, but is not afraid to fight.” This sentiment was reinforced by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, who shared a historical video of Chairman Mao Zedong’s 1953 speech during the Korean War on social media, quoting: “Not afraid of provocation.” The invocation of wartime rhetoric is symbolically powerful – it not only signals Beijing’s psychological readiness for confrontation but also taps into national memory and patriotic legitimacy.
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