2025-02-14
46 分钟The Economist.
If you were a Chinese policymaker sitting in Beijing last week,
then this news probably wouldn't have come as a big surprise.
President Trump's new 10% tariffs on goods coming in from China went into effect.
Nevertheless, there remains uncertainty around how far this latest trade dispute will go and how it will end.
Eventually we're gonna put tariffs on chips.
We're gonna put tariffs on oil and gas.
That'll happen fairly soon.
We're gonna be putting tariffs on steel and aluminum and ultimately copper.
you could argue that a tariff tit for tat is only one of a long list of economic problems for 2025.
That's because over the past year, China has been exhibiting the signs of a much broader economic malaise.
People and businesses are not spending and the world's second largest economy is struggling to revive demand.
China still struggling despite recent efforts from the government to boost consumer spending.
We knew the Chinese economy was not great,
but it looks like there was a deceleration even as we headed into this last month.
China's economy has been rocked by a crisis in the property sector after the housing bubble burst in 2021.
Strict pandemic lockdowns hit consumer confidence, which hasn't recovered since.
Factories aren't working at full capacity as Chinese exporters face increased barriers to trade with other countries.
The result is weak demand as indicated by the price of consumer goods,