Five cards China holds in a trade war with the US
A trade war between the world's two biggest economies is now in full swing.
2025-04-24 13:00:08 - VI News Staff
Chinese exports to the US face up to 245% tariffs, and Beijing has hit back with a 125% levy on American imports. Consumers, businesses and markets are braced for more uncertainty as fears of a global recession have heightened.
Chinese President Xi Jinping's government has repeatedly said it is open to dialogue, but warned that, if necessary, it would "fight to the end".
Here's a look at what Beijing has in its arsenal to counter US President Donald Trump's tariffs.
China is the world's second-largest economy, which means it can absorb the impacts of the tariffs better than other smaller countries.
With more than a billion people, it also has a huge domestic market that could take some of the pressure off exporters who are reeling from tariffs.
Beijing is still fumbling with the keys because Chinese people are not spending enough. But with a range of incentives, from subsidies for household appliances to "silver trains" for travelling retirees, that could change.
And Trump's tariffs have given the Chinese Communist Party an even stronger impetus to unlock the country's consumer potential.
The leadership may "very well be willing to endure the pain to avoid capitulating to what they believe is US aggression", Mary Lovely, a US-China trade expert at the Peterson Institute in Washington DC, told BBC Newshour earlier this month.
China also has a higher threshold for pain as an authoritarian regime, as it is far less worried about short-term public opinion. There is no election around the corner that will judge its leaders.