Is Xi Jinping ready for Donald Trump's tariffs on China?

The ascent of Donald Trump as the 47th US President will bring new challenges for President of China Xi Jinping

 US President Donald Trump, left, and Xi Jinping, China's president, shake hands
(Image credit: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Last year was a “relatively quiet if depressing” one for China, says James Palmer in Foreign Policy. This year could be “a lot stormier”, especially when it comes to relations with the US. With Donald Trump about to start a second term as US president and threatening to saddle China with tariffs of 60%, the “leadership in Beijing is readying for a ferocious economic struggle”.

It is not in a good place for a trade war, says William Pesek in Nikkei Asia. Although China under Xi Jinping has made progress in transitioning from cheap exports to higher-value sectors, Xi has “slowed things down by prioritising control over change”. Cracks in the economy include manufacturing overcapacity, the ongoing property crisis, “shaky” local government finances which are hindering investment, record unemployment and falling confidence.

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Emily Hohler
Politics editor

Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.

Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.