How Trump's tariff chaos is bringing China's ‘trade circle of friends' closer
There has been growing debate about whether US President
Donald Trump 's tariff strategy will drive a wedge between China and other Global South nations. Analysts say the opposite is happening.
Advertisement
One example is China, facing duties of up to 245 per cent, and
Brazil , where Trump's global baseline 10 per cent tariff has been imposed.
The two nations have stepped up high-level engagement since the tariff chaos started.
On Tuesday, China's top diplomat Wang Yi called for Brasilia and Beijing to oppose 'the law of the jungle' together and said relations were at their 'best period in history' during separate meetings in Rio de Janeiro with Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and chief presidential adviser Celso Amorim.
Those meetings – on the sidelines of a
Brics gathering – were held ahead of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's planned trip to China in May, and after Chinese officials travelled to Brazil for Brics agriculture talks and infrastructure projects in mid-April.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left) and his Brazilian counterpart Mauro Vieira arrive for a Brics meeting in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday. Photo: AP
Analysts say the American president's trade war is likely to help strengthen ties between China and Brazil – the largest developing economies in the eastern and western hemispheres, respectively. It could also drive further cooperation and give fresh impetus to joint efforts for greater clout in the global governance system.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RTHK
37 minutes ago
- RTHK
Tech losses lead Hang Seng Index to lower close
Tech losses lead Hang Seng Index to lower close The benchmark Hang Seng Index ended the day down 331.56 points, or 1.36 percent, to close at 24,035.38. File photo: RTHK Stocks in mainland China and Hong Kong ended mostly lower on Thursday, led by declines in the tech sector, as markets struggled to sustain the positive momentum from the Sino-US trade talks that lacked concrete details. In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index ended the day down 331.56 points, or 1.36 percent, to close at 24,035.38. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index slid 1.53 percent to end at 8,729.96 while the Hang Seng Tech Index slumped 2.20 percent to 5,331.33. Mainland Chinese stocks ended up mixed, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.01 percent at 3,402.66 and the Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.11 percent down at 10,234.33 The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 0.26 percent to close at 2,067.15. Among major losers, chipmaker SMIC fell 2 percent to a one-week low. Alibaba weakened 3.2 percent and EV maker Xpeng slid 6.7 percent. The CSI Rare Earth Index closed flat after slipping nearly 1 percent in the morning session and continued to hover near its seven-month high. A trade truce between the world's two biggest economies was back on track, US President Donald Trump said, a day after negotiators from Washington and Beijing agreed on a framework to ease bilateral retaliatory tariffs. Under the agreement, Beijing will lift export curbs on rare earth minerals and the United States will restore Chinese students' access to its universities, Trump said on Truth Social. Yet the terms remain subject to final approvals, with details notably absent. The 55 percent tariffs on Chinese imports will also stay, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said. "We still don't know if what Trump says will actually happen. It's disappointing that the tariffs rates were not dialled down at all and tech curbs on China were not even mentioned," said Jason Chan, senior investment strategist at Bank of East Asia, Hong Kong. The talks left key issues, like chip exports, unaddressed, leaving room for conflicts in the future, and no one knows for how long the current truce will last, he added. Chinese markets have been struggling to recover from trade shocks for the past two months after Trump announced sweeping tariffs on April 2 that threatened the global trade system. The CSI 300 Index has barely eked out any gains since then, while the Hang Seng Index has climbed 3.5 percent, but the two are underperforming the nearly 10 percent bounce in the MSCI World Index . The market is less sensitive to trade talks and investors are shifting focus to economic fundamentals, Wang Zhuo, partner at Zhuozhu Investment, said. "The key for China now is to bolster manufacturers' confidence and break the deflationary trend." (Reuters/Xinhua)
Asia Times
an hour ago
- Asia Times
Harvard battle is Trump's 'Mao moment'
During the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong pushed for the closure of Chinese universities, seeing higher education as little more than a breeding ground for counterrevolutionary bourgeois intellectuals. After closing for a period, China's universities reopened on a limited basis from 1970, with selection criteria based on class background, revolutionary devotion and connections to the Communist Party. It was not until 1977 that the national university entrance exam ( gaokao ) was reinstated and a merit system put back in place. This period had been China's 'Mao moment' in higher education, but Mao's historic mistake appears to be repeating itself in the US today. Imperial China had a sophisticated system of examinations (kējǔ, 科举) for citizens to reach the status of civil servant, or mandarin. These tests date back to the 7th century, under the Sui dynasty (581-618), and lasted until 1905. Depending on the period, the exams lasted from one to three days. Candidates were locked in a room, identified by a number, and their tests were copied by a third party so that their identity could not be recognised by their handwriting. All this was to ensure a fair and impartial contest for candidates whose futures were at stake. MIT professor Yasheng Huang says that if he had to highlight one fundamental difference between China and other civilisations, it would be the existence of these imperial examinations. He adds that they were both a blessing and a curse. He also points out that they are directly to blame for the state's ongoing monopolisation of human talent in China. Put simply, the best and brightest became mandarins under this system. By depriving society of access to the best talent, the state also denied its people the chance of having any kind of organised religion, commerce or intelligentsia. For Huang, the imperial examinations were a significant cause of the decline of collective social action in China, one of the distinctive features of a civil society. This is reflected in the title of his 2024 book 'The Rise and Fall of the EAST', where EAST is not a compass point but an acronym for China's defining features: Exams, Autocracy, Stability and Technology. 'The 'Chinese phenomenon' is why this ancient civilization with a long history of more than 2,000 years has declined in the modern era. Why is it lagging behind the modern nations of the world?' This question was posed in 1991 by the Chinese politician and intellectual Wang Huning, in his book 'America against America'. Ever since Deng Xiaoping came to power in 1978, it became increasingly clear to China that its progress depended on raising its population's education level, especially after the ravages of the Maoist Cultural Revolution. To do this, China created the C9 League in 2009. Composed of nine universities and similar to the American Ivy League, its members account for 10% of China's national research budget, 3% of its total number of researchers, and 20% of published studies. When I spoke of 'barbarians' in my 2024 book 'China for the New Barbarians', (Nola editores, 2024), I did so to call attention to the fact that there is a certain ignorance when the West speaks about China. However, the Trump Administration's ongoing attacks against Harvard, one of the world's most renowned universities, can only be described as barbaric. Last week, Harvard was barred from enrolling international students on the grounds of alleged leftist indoctrination and anti-Semitism. It has also revoked student visas and, as if that were not enough, it has demanded that universities hand over information on students who have participated in student protests. Students in Harvard protesting against President Donald J. Trump. Pietrorizzatoph/Shutterstock What the Trump Administration wants is for Harvard to cease foreign admissions, a move that would lock out 6,500 students. In addition to denying Harvard access to top international talent, it would also inflict enormous damage to the ever-weakening concept of the 'American spirit', made up of democratic values, freedom, generosity, equality of opportunity, universal education, courage and leadership. The measure has been temporarily blocked by a district judge, though this may not count for much – the Trump Administration has already set a precedent of disputing or ignoring court orders. The situation is so dire that Jerome Powell – the chair of the Federal Reserve who was appointed by Trump during his first term – has been unable to keep quiet. Addressing Princeton University students at the May 2025 commencement speech, he stressed that American universities are the envy of the world and a crucial asset for the US to continue to lead in scientific innovation and economic dynamism. Powell's speech to Princeton graduates in May 2025. Source: Princeton University, YouTube. Powell has himself been a target of Trump's criticism. In response to Powell's refusal to lower interest rates – which he has kept between 4.25% and 4.5% to contain inflation – the president has called him 'Mr Too Late' and 'Major loser.' The world watches in astonishment as the US federal administration attempts to dismantle the country's university system, which for decades has been one of the US's poles of attraction, and a bulwark of its economic and technological success. This was perhaps best expressed by Oriaku, a Nigerian taxi driver I met back in the nineties who ferried me and my colleague Juan Gordon around Lagos. He told us about his dream of sending his children to Harvard, and when Juan commented that this would be expensive, he wisely replied, 'if you think education is expensive, try ignorance.' 'Harvard, Harvard,' Oriaku continued, 'that's the only reason I work myself to the bone.' Moves are already being made elsewhere to pick up the slack and welcome academics. The Hong Kong government, for instance, has called on its universities to attract the foreign talent that the US now wants to reject. Meanwhile, the Chinese can only smirk: they already lived through Mao's brutal onslaught against their universities during the Cultural Revolution and know that it will bring no benefits. America is living through its own 'Mao moments', but we may soon be able to rename them 'Trump moments.' Félix Valdivieso is chairman of IE China Observatory, IE University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
RTHK
2 hours ago
- RTHK
US personnel 'are being moved out of Middle East'
US personnel 'are being moved out of Middle East' A Marine keeps an eye out for potential trouble at the US embassy in Baghdad. File photo: AFP The sixth round of US-Iran nuclear talks will be held on Sunday in Muscat, the Omani foreign minister said on Thursday, after US President Donald Trump reiterated that Tehran would not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. Trump said on Wednesday US personnel were being moved out of the Middle East because "it could be a dangerous place". The United States has been reported as preparing an evacuation of its Iraqi embassy and allowing military dependents to leave locations around the Middle East due to heightened security risks in the region, according to US and Iraqi sources. The four US and two Iraqi sources did not say what security risks had prompted the decision. Reports of the potential evacuation pushed up oil prices by more than 4 percent before prices eased on Thursday. Foreign energy companies were continuing their operations as usual, a senior Iraqi official overseeing operations in southern oilfields said on Thursday. A US official said the State Department had authorized voluntary departures from Bahrain and Kuwait. The State Department updated its worldwide travel advisory on Wednesday evening to reflect the latest US posture. "On June 11, the Department of State ordered the departure of non-emergency US government personnel due to heightened regional tensions," the advisory said. The decision to evacuate some personnel comes at a volatile moment in the region. Trump's efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran appear to be deadlocked and US intelligence indicates that Israel has been making preparations for a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. "They are being moved out because it could be a dangerous place, and we'll see what happens," Trump said. "We've given notice to move out." Asked whether anything could be done to lower the temperature in the region, Trump said: "They can't have a nuclear weapon. Very simple, they can't have a nuclear weapon." Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if stuttering talks over its nuclear programme fail and in an interview released earlier on Wednesday said he was growing less confident that Tehran would agree to stop enriching uranium, a key American demand. While the evacuation of non-essential personnel raised concerns about a possible regional escalation, a senior Iranian security official told Iran's Press TV on Thursday that US military dependents leaving did not constitute a threat. On Wednesday, Iran's defence minister warned Washington that Tehran would hit US regional bases if drawn into a war in the case of nuclear talks failing. The United States has a military presence across the major oil-producing region, with bases in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. (Reuters)
