“Ugly Monday” Kicks Off China’s Response to U.S. Tariffs

A man looks at a screen showing Chinese stock market movements on Monday 7 April. Photo by WANG Zhao / AFP.

China’s stock market suffered the largest losses since 2022 as investors braced for the impact of China’s countermeasures to cumulative tariffs of more than 50% imposed by the Trump administration. Beijing announced 34% retaliatory tariffs on all U.S. imports on Friday. The announcement came during a long weekend in China, so the full effects will only become apparent this week.

While many smaller countries are simply removing all trade barriers on U.S. goods in the hope of negotiating some relief from the global levies announced on “Liberation Day” last week, China’s rapid retaliation raised fears of a full trade war leading to global recession. However, the rapidity of the reaction also showed that Beijing was preparing for a trade war. This was laid out in a People’s Daily op-ed published this weekend. All excerpts were AI-translated and edited for clarity.

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by CGSP Staff

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