China 'better prepared' to deal with US tariff threats
A China expert on Monday said that Beijing is well prepared to deal with US President Donald Trump's tariff threats, with the nation now less dependent on American trade.The comments come ahead of expected trade talks between Vice Premier He Lifeng and a US delegation in Britain, the second round of such negotiations between the world's two biggest economies since Trump launched his trade war shortly after returning to the White House in January.Zhou Bo, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, was speaking to RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme "I think China is becoming better prepared because China has dealt with him (Trump) before and China's dependency on America actually has been reduced," Zhou, who is a retired People's Liberation Army senior colonel, said."Throughout this kind of tariff war, you can see that China, from the very beginning, stand firm. China said it would fight to the end if necessary, while China is also open to conversation.On last Thursday's phone conversation between President Xi Jinping and Trump, Zhou said the exchange was extremely important."Just imagine the largest economies not to talk to each other, then all other people would watch anxiously...This would be a huge relief for people around the world."Zhou also said he was optimistic that both sides will make progress at the talks in London."I think from the Chinese side, the requirement is very simple. China just wants to be respected, China just wants to be treated on an equal footing."I hope, and I'm sure, there will definitely be some kind of positive results," he added.Speaking on Truth Social platform, Trump said in a post that "the meeting should go very well".He added that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would meet the Chinese delegation. (Additional reporting by AFP)
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