Speaking of the trade war between China and the United States, it is not a new topic for a long time. However, the US strategy of suppressing China is not so easy to change. In the middle of this month, the United States again announced tariffs ranging from 25% to 100% on electric vehicles, solar cells, semiconductors and other products worth about $18 billion in China. This is the first time in five years that the United States has once again launched a large-scale trade war and tariff war against China.
Why is the United States launching a tariff war against China again? In fact, in the general direction, this problem is no longer a problem. Because since the United States returned to the national strategy of "great power competition", it has set China as its only competitor. As for Russia, it is just a stunned young man who loves to fight, and it cannot threaten the United States in other aspects. And China's current national strength is far from the Russian Kobe. China's progress in modern and innovative industries has made the United States feel a huge threat in its bones. The purpose of the trade war launched by the United States against China is to suppress China's rise and consolidate its position in the world. But what we should note here is that the purpose of the United States is to suppress China's momentum, not to completely crush China. Completely crushing China will not do the United States any good. The United States just wants to continue to be in the priority position of the distribution of interests in the existing system of world order. China can gain benefits, but not more than the United States.
If you don't believe me, let's look at the list of goods that the United States has imposed tariffs this time. First of all, steel and aluminum, it is not surprising that the blow to China's steel exports began many years ago. The second is semiconductors, which can be understood as continuing to hit Chinese technology companies such as Huawei. Then there are electric cars, batteries, solar cells. The combination of these three is obviously a blow to China's explosive growth of the new energy vehicle industry. The United States will never allow China's cheap new energy vehicles to enter the United States, and it will also suppress China for its European allies and maintain the market position of traditional fuel vehicles in Europe and the United States.
Finally, there are rare earth minerals, cranes and medical equipment, which are also areas of strength for China. Anyway, in a word, the United States will suppress China in areas where it has advantages. On the other hand, the fact that the United States suppresses China shows that China is catching up with and surpassing the United States in this field.
The United States loves to fight a trade war, and it is not a matter of one or two days. A good example is that at the end of the last century, Japan's economy was booming, and it was even stronger than China's current economy. At that time, the United States was being overtaken by Japan in various fields, and the Japanese rich and conglomerates were frantically harvesting in the United States, which made Americans tremble. In the end, the Americans finally realized that if they continued to cling to the idea of "free trade," they might lose their first position. So the United States tore off the mask of kindness and launched a full-scale trade war against Japan for various reasons. You must know that Japan is an ally of the United States, and the United States will not hesitate at all to make a move. The United States has imposed a comprehensive tax on Japan, from textiles to steel, from home appliances to semiconductors, and has suppressed Japanese companies in one fell swoop. As a direct result, the glory of Japanese companies is gone, and it has been surpassed by rising stars such as China and South Korea.
But if the United States thinks of China as the next Japan, then they still think too much. China is not the little brother of the United States. China's economic size, ability to innovate and develop, and market size are not comparable to Japan's. The most important thing is that China has never been a hegemonic power, and absolutely no country will be damaged in cooperation with China, and China will never turn its face like the United States. The world of the future belongs to civilized countries, and as for whether the United States is civilized enough, we have to ask themselves.