Cracks On The Great Wall: China Buckling Under Trump’s Trade War?
China’s escalating trade war with the US government is creating divisiveness within China’s Communist Party.
Chinese President Xi Jinping continues to be a force to reckon with but his administration’s economic policy and methods of dealing with the trade war are being criticized heavily.
President Xi’s ideology chief and strategist, Wang Huning is at the receiving end of a backlash. Wang’s strident views on Chinese power are now under attack.
He is being blamed for Xi’s desire to create the country’s unwarranted nationalistic image which caused the United States to drift apart. Wang is the proponent of “China Dream” which strongly influenced Xi’s vision for China.
“He’s in trouble for mishandling the propaganda and hyping up China too much,” according to one of the sources, who has ties to China’s leadership and propaganda system. The fate of Wang Huning remains unclear but one thing is for certain, cracks within the party are related to him.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, an expert on Chinese policy shared the following opinion to media:
“Many economists and intellectuals are upset. The overarching view is that China’s current stance has been too hardline and the leadership has clearly misjudged the situation.”
China believed that it reached a favorable deal with Washington in May and averted a trade war.
However, they were caught by surprise in July when Trump administration pushed through with its threat to impose tariffs on $34billlion worth of Chinese products. Beijing immediately responded by imposing tariffs of the same scale on American products.
China’s economy is currently taking the brunt of the trade war between the two largest economies in the world. The country’s national currency and stock markets have been sent into free-fall. The Chinese government has been encouraging more lending and guaranteed to use fiscal policy such as tax cuts and government funding to alleviate the effects of economic slowdown.
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