China’s options for retaliating against tariffs are limited by its own economy
&gt; The question is how. China’s imports from the United States only a fraction of the trade going the other way, so it cannot match Washington tariff for tariff. Much of that trade consists of agriculture goods like soybeans, as well as specialized products like Boeing jetliners or the American-made chips for the smartphones China makes.<p>The question monetary value, but <i>where widgets are physically made made.</i> This simple realisation eludes so many &quot;China Experts&quot; in the West.<p>Were Beijing to pull an inverse Huawei ban on any company in the West, that company would be dead in a few months no matter what it is. It can crash US stock market, pension funds and assuredly secure the non-election of Trump for the second term.<p>China is fully capable of economic retaliation against US and can genuinely make it hurt, but it chooses not to because people in Zhongnanhai have no guts for that.<p>What surprised me most in recent months is that out of all people, the criticism of Xi&#x27;s overly conciliatory tone with Washington is now coming from people whom you can call Chinese industrialists class. This criticism is quite strong worded, emotional. I never ever saw somebody so up on social ladder here being so openly critical of Xi before.