Why Trump's 14-nation tariff package puts China on edge and pressures Southeast Asia
Advertisement
Instead, Beijing's policymakers may feel increasingly cornered, as Washington also moved to target 14 countries – many of them China's close trading partners – with tariffs of up to 40 per cent.
This came despite breakthrough talks in London that laid the groundwork to
remove most bilateral export controls – from China's rare earth restrictions to US aircraft engines and chips.
Analysts said the latest US tariff package was a calculated strategy to isolate China and strengthen Washington's position in coming trade negotiations, as the 90-day trade truce agreed in May is set to expire in early August.
'Trump's newly announced tariffs ... are a continuation of this decoupling agenda,' said Xu Weijun, an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Public Policy at South China University of Technology.
Advertisement
'It's both pressure and division: the message is clear – 'cooperative' countries like Vietnam get
preferential treatment , while others face high tariffs,' he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
36 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
Beijing denies German accusation that PLA laser-targeted aircraft patrolling Red Sea
Beijing has denied Germany's allegation that a Chinese warship had targeted a German aircraft in the Red Sea with a laser. The German foreign ministry said on Tuesday the aircraft was taking part in the European Union's Aspides mission to protect marine traffic in the waterway, while the People's Liberation Army naval vessel laser-targeted it 'without reason or prior contact'. The Chinese ambassador to Berlin was summoned for the incident the ministry described as 'endangering German personnel and disrupting the operation' and 'entirely unacceptable'. In response, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the accusation 'does not match the facts that China has gathered'. 'It is important to increase communication in a timely way and be fact-based to avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation,' spokesperson Mao Ning said. Mao did not elaborate on China's version of the incident but defended the PLA navy's presence in the region.
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Trump admin threatens Harvard's accreditation, demands foreign student records
US President Donald Trump's administration escalated its feud with Harvard University on Wednesday, declaring that the Ivy League school may no longer meet the standards for accreditation and that it would subpoena it for records about its international students. The move is the latest in a series of actions the administration has taken against Harvard, which sued the federal government after officials terminated billions of dollars in grants awarded to the school and moved to bar it from admitting international students. The administration has said it is trying to force change at Harvard and other top-level universities across the US, contending they have become bastions of leftist 'woke' thought and antisemitism. Trump on June 20 said that talks with Harvard were under way that could soon produce a settlement. But as of Wednesday, when the latest actions by the administration were announced, talks had stalled, and the parties were 'far from an agreement', a person familiar with the matter said. 'Harvard remains unwavering in its efforts to protect its community and its core principles against unfounded retribution by the federal government,' Harvard said in a statement. 04:21 Citing China 'activity', Trump administration bars Harvard from enrolling foreign students Citing China 'activity', Trump administration bars Harvard from enrolling foreign students The US Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services said on Wednesday that they formally notified Harvard's accreditor, the New England Commission of Higher Education, that Harvard had violated a federal antidiscrimination law by failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students on campus.
South China Morning Post
3 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Republicans urge US schools to drop ‘nefarious' Chinese scholarship programme
House Republicans have urged seven US universities to cut ties with a Chinese scholarship programme that lawmakers call a 'nefarious mechanism' to steal technology for the Chinese government. Advertisement In letters to Dartmouth College, the University of Notre Dame and five other universities, leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party raised concerns about the schools' partnerships with the China Scholarship Council, a study abroad programme funded by China. The programme sponsors hundreds of Chinese graduate students every year at US universities. After graduating, they are required to return to China for two years. In the letters sent on Tuesday, Republicans described it as a threat to national security. 'CSC purports to be a joint scholarship programme between US and Chinese institutions; however, in reality it is a CCP-managed technology transfer effort that exploits US institutions and directly supports China's military and scientific growth,' wrote Republican congressman John Moolenaar, chair of the committee. Letters were also sent to Temple University, the University of Tennessee and the University of California campuses in Davis, Irvine and Riverside. The committee said it's opening a review into the programme's 'infiltration' of US universities and demanded records related to the programme from all seven institutions. Advertisement The universities' partnerships with the council bring up to 15 graduate students a year to Dartmouth, along with up to 60 at Temple and 40 at Notre Dame, according to the letters. Some schools split the cost, including Dartmouth, which covers 50 per cent of tuition and provides a stipend to doctoral students. Among other records, lawmakers are demanding documents showing whether scholarship recipients worked on research funded by the US government.
