[By Guancha Observer Network, Liu Chenghui] "The White House may have underestimated China's resilience and the public's emotions against Trump," wrote Foreign Policy on April 17th.

In a recent live program, the magazine invited guests to discuss the topic of the Sino-US trade conflict.

Scott Kennedy, senior advisor for China business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), mentioned in the program that compared to America's current radical changes and unpredictability, China has been much more stable.

He particularly pointed out that the Chinese are actually quite united, with firm positions from both the government and the public in the trade conflict. Especially after Trump announced the imposition of "reciprocal tariffs" in early April, the consensus to oppose Trump became even stronger in China. Even pro-American individuals believed that China must confront the United States.

Image of Scott Kennedy being interviewed by Foreign Policy

Mentioning his trip to China in March this year, Kennedy first talked about the challenges China's economy faced post-pandemic. But he said that over the past month, with the introduction of government stimulus policies and the emergence of technological achievements such as DeepSeek, people's morale has been greatly boosted.

Another major factor is Trump's policies. Kennedy believes that Trump has implemented a series of "radical changes" in the U.S., making China appear much more stable and predictable by comparison.

"I found that whether they are hawks or those who lean more towards liberalism, or even pro-American individuals, they all believe that China must confront the United States," he said.

He noted that after what Trump called "Liberation Day" (April 2nd), this consensus became even stronger in China.

"For various reasons, whether it be economic strength or viewing the current situation as a matter of survival, the Chinese are actually quite united and will stand their ground if necessary."

"When (the) spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made related remarks, he indeed expressed the feelings of many members of the public," Kennedy said.

The spokesperson for our Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly emphasized that the Chinese do not provoke trouble nor fear it, and pressure, threats, and extortion are not the right ways to deal with China. China will certainly take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests. If the US disregards the interests of both countries and the international community and insists on a tariff war or trade war, China will definitely see it through to the end.

As for whether the Sino-US tariff conflict will lead to a more dangerous situation, even military conflict, Kennedy said that the escalation depends on the US, not China. "China will continue to respond to Washington's actions. If Washington escalates, China will escalate if necessary, but this is not their intention."

In 2023, Kennedy attended the China Development High-Level Forum Annual Meeting in China. In March this year, Kennedy attended the 2025 annual meeting again.

During the conference, he told China Network's "China Interview" column that China has introduced a package of stimulus measures in fiscal and monetary policies, striving to assure global enterprises that China is a country where they can invest, trade, and work. Therefore, we may see some recovery in China's economy in 2025.

Another guest on the show, Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a researcher at the Council on Foreign Relations and columnist for Foreign Policy magazine, said that although Trump's tariffs will pose challenges to China's economic growth, the Chinese do not want a trade war. However, if forced into such a situation, they may endure greater pressure and have better tools to counteract it.

It is worth noting that under continuous countermeasures from China, Trump, who had been blindly imposing tariff chaos, changed his tone.

Trump said on April 17th in the Oval Office of the White House that he did not want to continue increasing tariffs on China because it might cause trade between the two countries to stall.

"At a certain point, I don't want to increase tariffs further because to a certain extent, people won't buy goods anymore," he said.

"So I may not want to increase tariffs further, or even reach the current level. I might want to reduce tariffs because, you know, you want people to buy goods," Trump added.

Paul Krugman, professor at the City University of New York and Nobel laureate in Economics in 2008, bluntly stated on April 16th that Trump would lose the trade war.

Krugman believes that the current American leadership is far from "wise and clear-headed" and has lost the trust of allies, so the policy of "isolating China through trade negotiations" simply does not work.

"China is in the dominant position, not the United States," he said.

This article is an exclusive contribution by Guancha Observer Network and cannot be reprinted without permission.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7494562796831654436/

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