Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday urged the European Union to join Beijing in resisting “unilateral bullying”, state media Xinhua reported. The Chinese president’s remarks come amid the trade war between China and the United States as President Donald Trump imposed 145% tariffs on Chinese goods.
Xi Jinping made the comments as he met with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Beijing.
“China and Europe should fulfil their international responsibilities… and jointly resist unilateral bullying practices,” Xi said, according to AFP.
The Chinese president stressed that this would not only “safeguard their own legitimate rights and interests, but also… safeguard international fairness and justice.”
Sanchez, in turn, said tensions over trade should not impede cooperation between the European Union and China.
“Both Spain and Europe have a significant trade deficit with China that we must work to rectify,” he said, according to AFP.
“…We must not let trade tensions stand in the way of the potential growth of the relationship between China and Spain and between China and the EU.”
This is Sanchez’s third visit to China in just over two years.
Donald Trump’s tariff on China
Donald Trump has ratcheted up a trade war with China after he hiked the tariff on Chinese imports to 145%.
Since taking office in January, Trump has now raised the tariff on Chinese goods five times.
The first two hikes of 10% each were met with what analysts described as a measured response from China that left the door open for talks. But after Trump announced an additional 34% duty on Chinese goods last week, along with tariffs on other countries in his “Liberation Day”, China matched that with a 34% tariff on imports from the US.
Following China’s retaliations, Trump then added a 50% tariff on goods from China, saying negotiations were terminated, and bringing the cumulative US. tariffs to 104%.
China again responded by raising the tariff on American products by the same amount, bringing its total rate to 84%. Then Trump upped the American tariff to 125%.
Later, the White House clarified that the tariffs on China also include a 20% levy put into place earlier this year over Beijing’s alleged role in fentanyl trafficking.
