Xi warns of ‘no winners’ in US-China trade war

Xi Jinping, the president of China, said on Tuesday that a trade war with the US would have “no winners.” He also promised that the country would meet its growth goals for the year.Xi warns of ‘no winners’ in US-China trade war

Donald Trump, who is running for president again next month, started a terrible trade war with China during his first term, accusing them of stealing intellectual property and other “unfair” things.

He promised to put even higher tariffs on China when he takes office on January 20. This is because Beijing is still struggling with a slow economic recovery from the pandemic.

According to state broadcaster CCTV, Xi talked about the relationship between China and the US while meeting with the heads of several multilateral financial institutions in Beijing. “Tariff wars, trade wars, and technology wars go against historical trends and economic rules, and there will be no winners,” he said.

“China is ready to keep talking with the US government, work together more, work out their differences, and push for the growth of China-US relations in a healthy, stable, and long-term way,” Xi said.

Beijing wants the economy to grow by about 5% each year this year, even though domestic demand is slowing, unemployment is high, and the property market has been in a crisis for a long time.

State media reported that Xi also said at the meeting on Tuesday that China had “full confidence” in reaching its growth goal for 2024.

His comments came as official data showed that China’s exports rose less quickly than expected last month and its imports fell even more. This shows that China still has a lot of problems to solve.

The most recent reading made it clear that more help is needed, just one day after top government officials promised to speed up slowing growth.

– A trade war is coming –

This year, shipments to other countries have been one of the few bright spots in China’s economy. This is because domestic spending has been falling and investors are afraid of the real estate market.

The General Administration of Customs in China said that last month’s exports rose 6.7% year-over-year to $312.3 billion.

But the rate was much lower than the 8.7 percent that economists polled by Bloomberg thought it would be. It was also much lower than the 12.7% jump in October, which was the biggest in more than two years.

Exports went up 5.4% year-over-year from January to November, according to the data.

In 2024, China’s exports may have been the best surprise for the economy, wrote Lynn Song, who is the chief economist for Greater China at ING.

It is because of this that China will likely reach its “around five percent” growth goal this year, he said.

Analysts think that the recent rise in shipments is because foreign buyers were racing to avoid any tariffs that Trump might put on Chinese goods out of fear of another trade dispute.

Song wrote, “Exports may pick up at the beginning of the next few months, but the pace is likely to slow down after that, unless the outcome of tariff talks is surprisingly positive.”

The 3.9 percent drop in imports last month built on the previous month’s drop and was much worse than the 0.9 percent rise that was expected. This is because domestic demand is still being held back by consumers’ lacklustre spending.

Investors are paying close attention to what Chinese leaders say as they meet this week in Beijing for a series of important meetings to plan the economy for the next year.

An important group in China called the Politburo called for “vigorous” support for consumption and a loosening of monetary policy in 2025.

But people are still waiting for specific policies to be announced, especially any that will significantly boost consumption.

China’s president and chief economist, Zhang Zhiwei, wrote in a note that a key meeting on economic policy that is due to happen soon could “shed more light, particularly on the fiscal policy front.”