China is well positioned for a trade showdown with Trump

LIKE boxers before a championship bout, America and China are trash talking each other.

Last week, Scott Bessent, the US Treasury secretary, said that when it comes to the great punch-up over trade: “This is China versus the world.” If Beijing does not retract its threat to restrict the export of rare earth minerals, according to Bessent, the world will have to decouple from China.

For its part, Beijing called the Trump administration’s threat to impose 100 per cent tariffs on China “a typical example of US double standards”. At an earlier stage in the tariff conflict, the Chinese foreign ministry put out a video of Mao Zedong during the Korean War, proclaiming: “No matter how long this war will last. We will never yield.”