{"id":73720,"date":"2025-10-12T11:31:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T11:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/73720\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T11:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T11:31:07","slug":"china-accuses-us-of-double-standards-over-tariff-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/73720\/","title":{"rendered":"China accuses US of ‘double standards’ over tariff threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump’s latest threat to impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods is “a typical example of US double standards”, China’s government has said.<\/p>\n

A Commerce Ministry spokesperson also said China could introduce its own unspecified “countermeasures” if the US President carries out his threat, adding it was “not afraid” of a possible trade war.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Trump hit back at Beijing’s move to tighten its rules for exports of rare earths, accusing China of “becoming very hostile” and trying to hold the world “captive”.<\/p>\n

He also threatened to pull out of a meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping scheduled for later this month.<\/p>\n

Trump’s comments on Friday<\/a> rattled financial markets, with the S&P 500 share index closing down 2.7%, its steepest fall since April.<\/p>\n

The president’s words renewed fears of a trade war between the US and China.<\/p>\n

In May, the two sides had agreed to drop triple-digit tariffs on each others’ goods. which had raised the prospect of trade halting between the two countries.<\/p>\n

This left US tariffs on Chinese goods facing an added 30% levy compared with the start of the year, while US goods entering China face a 10% tariff.<\/p>\n

China’s latest remarks \u2013 released by the Commerce Ministry in the form of written responses to journalist’s questions \u2013 echoed language from the height of the recent trade conflict.<\/p>\n

They criticised US export restrictions on chips and semi-conductors as well as defending China’s own export controls on rare earths as “normal actions” to safeguard national security and that of all nations.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said that for “a long time”, the US had “overstretched the concept of national security, abused export control measures” and “adopted discriminatory practices against China”.<\/p>\n

“Resorting to tariff threats is not the right way to engage with China,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“China’s position on a tariff war has always been consistent: we do not want one, but we are not afraid of one.”<\/p>\n

Last week, China announced it was tightening export controls on rare earths<\/a> and other materials critical for advanced tech manufacturing.<\/p>\n

This was seen as key move, as the country processes about 90% of the world’s rare earths, which are used in goods such as solar panels and smartphones.<\/p>\n

The recent comments from Washington and Beijing are being seen by some as a means of strengthening positions ahead of future trade talks.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether a meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, expected at a summit in South Korea later this month, will still proceed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump’s latest threat to impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods is “a typical example of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-73720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}