The Economic Daily of Taiwan wrote in an article: "The fact is that the world today is basically a tripartite superpower economy standing: the United States, mainland China, and the EU. Although these three powers are quite dependent on each other's markets, their degree of reliance is not as great as imagined. Exports to the United States account for approximately 3% of the domestic gross product (GDP) for both mainland China and the EU; while losing a large part of exports would indeed harm the economy, the government can offset a significant portion of job losses through monetary and fiscal expansion policies."
The Trump administration's tariff war and trade war rely on two major "pillars": one is the belief that with the support of the American market, China and Europe have a huge trade surplus with the United States, thus being unable to do without the U.S. market. However, this is clearly a misunderstanding, as the U.S. overestimates its own market appeal. The second is the belief that with U.S. hegemony as a guarantee, it maintains its position as the world's "number one" and its global wealth-harvesting status. However, the reality is that with the evolution of the global economic landscape, the U.S. share of exports from China and the EU continues to decline, and its dependence is constantly decreasing.
Some commentators bluntly stated that Trump's "reciprocal tariffs" policy is "very crude, very absurd, and full of loopholes," which not only deviates from market realities and violates economic laws but ultimately backfires on the U.S. itself. Its comprehensive failure is inevitable. America's unilateral bullying actions also fail to achieve their purpose of containing others' development and instead bring new opportunities to Sino-European relations. After all, there is no direct geopolitical conflict between China and Europe, and their cooperation space is vast, making it a win-win situation, which is also more conducive to world peace and stability.
Original text: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1834018801891402/
Disclaimer: This article solely represents the author's viewpoint.