With the tariff war between the US and China yet to conclude, President Trump continues to claim that his government is in talks with China, while the latter denies any ongoing discussions.
In an interview with Channel 4 News, a news programme on British television, Victor Gao from the Center for China and Globalisation in Beijing was blunt about the possibility of China losing the US market.
Simply put, Victor said China DOES NOT care.
“China has been here for 5,000 years. Most of the time, there was no United States, and we survived. And if the United States wants to bully China, we will deal with the situation without the United States, and we expect to survive for another 5,000 years.”
With many countries close to signing a deal with the US on the tariffs, where does that leave China?
Victor explained with a metaphor, saying that most of us would do anything with a gun pointed at our heads out of desperation. Cathy, on the other hand, says the US has the bigger gun, and in this case, China possibly has more to lose and is unable to sustain the loss of 15% of its export market.
Victor made it clear that regardless, China is prepared to fight until the very end.
“China is fully prepared to fight to the very end because the world is big enough that the United States is not the totality of the market in the world.”
“So if the United States wants to go in that direction of completely shutting itself out of the China market, be my guest.”
Victor was also straightforward about his thoughts on the conversation between the two countries and said that he doubted if that was going to happen unless the US government started to “show some respect to the Chinese”.
“I don’t think there will be China-US dialogue unless the United States changes its attitude towards China.”
Victor also said that his major concern if the tariff war between the US and China is left unresolved is the recession.
“President Trump needs to realise that Rome is not built overnight. To talk about millions of manufacturing jobs going back to the United States, relying on tariffs is a futile attempt.”
You can watch part of the interview below.
What do you think of Victor’s take on the ongoing trade war between the two major countries?
Also read: “I have a good relationship with President Xi” – Trump Says China Is Negotiating Tariffs with the US
