China now faces up to a 245% tariff on imports to the United States as a result of its retaliatory actions.

bnew

Veteran
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Messages
62,816
Reputation
9,538
Daps
172,040
The boy who cried tariff

A.I generated:



Once upon a time in the bustling kingdom of America, there lived a boy named Donny, known far and wide for his golden hair and a penchant for shouting about tariffs. Donny wasn’t your average lad; he was the ruler of the land, with a Twitter account mightier than any sword and a love for big, beautiful walls—both physical and economic. Donny’s favorite game was called “Tariff Tag,” and by April 2025, he was playing it with the world like a toddler with a new toy hammer.

One bright morning, Donny stood atop his White House balcony, megaphone in hand, and bellowed, “Tariffs! 145% on China!” The villagers—shopkeepers, farmers, and Silicon Valley coders—gasped. Their $8 Shein dresses, $14 Temu gadgets, and $30 Alibaba drones faced extinction. “This’ll bring jobs back!” Donny vowed, brandishing a chart so enormous it cast a shadow over Pennsylvania. The villagers, squinting, nodded, dazzled by the chart’s size, though the fine print read, “Economic impact: vibes-based.”

But Donny, never one for half-measures, spun around. “Wait! Tariffs on everyone! 10% on the world! 34% on China, 46% on Vietnam, 32% on Taiwan!” The world quaked. Canada’s maple syrup, Mexico’s avocados, Japan’s semiconductors—all hit. Wall Street imploded; the Dow cratered 1,500 points in hours. Nvidia, AI’s golden child, shed $400 billion as chip prices soared. “National security!” Donny cried, quietly slipping exemptions to his tech titan friends, looking like “Certain Buddies First.” Meanwhile, iPhone prices hit $1,300, and Best Buy shelves gathered dust.

The financial markets turned on Donny like a reality show contestant betrayed. Hedge funds dumped retail stocks; Walmart’s shares slid 12% as they warned of price hikes. Small manufacturers, like a Wisconsin toolmaker, collapsed when Chinese steel tariffs tripled costs. “Made in USA!” Donny tweeted, but the toolmaker’s bankruptcy filing told a different story. The S&P 500 wobbled, with Goldman Sachs muttering about a “tariff-triggered recession.” Inflation spiked to 5.2%, per the Fed, and consumer confidence tanked.

Donny’s next move? “Hold up!” he shouted, scratching his head. “Maybe we’ll pause some tariffs. Big deals coming!” The villagers blinked. Deals? With whom? China, unpaused and unimpressed, retaliated with 125% tariffs on American soybeans, bourbon, and electric cars. Iowa farmers watched crops rot, tweeting, “Donny’s ‘winning’ is our losing.” China rerouted exports through Malaysia, banned rare earth metals, and crippled U.S. battery plants. Tesla’s stock dove 18%, and Ford’s F-150s, pricier from tariffed steel, sat unsold.

Donny’s advisors, pale as ghosts, stammered, “Sir, tariffs are costing $300 million daily, not earning it.” Donny waved them off. “Fake news! We’re raking in billions!” The Customs Service, drowning in forms, begged to differ. Exemptions multiplied—pharma giants dodged drug tariffs, but small clinics paid 35% more for needles. “America First!” Donny winked, as his cronies’ stocks soared.

Across the seas, China played chess while Donny played tic-tac-toe. Xi, smirking over tea, inked trade pacts with Europe and ASEAN, calling France “China’s cousin.” Donny choked on his Diet Coke. The World Trade Organization wailed, “Global trade down 1.3%! GDP growth from 2.8% to 2.0%!” Donny scoffed, “WTO? Globalist clowns!”

The villagers suffered. A single dad in Michigan paid $60 for a “cheap” toaster, grumbling, “Tariffs tax us.” TikTok roasted Donny as “Chuan Jianguo,” China’s chaos-fueled savior. Retail sales fell 4%, and a viral meme showed a kid bartering his PS5 for bread, captioned, “Tariff Life.” Yet Donny mused about tariffs on clouds, immigrants, or Jupiter.

One day, Donny climbed his balcony, megaphone gleaming. “New tariffs!” he roared. The villagers, numb, shrugged. “He’s the boy who cried tariff,” they sighed, returning to their $90 sneakers and $15 burgers. Donny pouted, tweeting, “Ungrateful losers!” But the world had adapted—China thrived, allies pivoted, and the villagers dreamed of a day when Donny’s megaphone finally fizzled out.

The End.
 

bnew

Veteran
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Messages
62,816
Reputation
9,538
Daps
172,040
.https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/31/china/china-trump-conviction-trending-intl-hnk/index.html



Trump is trending on Chinese social media, and many are rejoicing​


By Nectar Gan, CNN

3 minute read

Updated 4:54 AM EDT, Fri May 31, 2024

Former US President Donald Trump leaves the courthouse after a jury found him guilty of all 34 felony counts in his criminal trial in New York on 30 May 2024.

Justin Lane/Pool/Reuters

Editor’s Note: Sign up for CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter which explores what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world.

CNN —

As Donald Trump became the first former US president to be convicted of a felony on Thursday, the historic verdict sparked huge interest – and a fair amount of schadenfreude – in China.

As a rising authoritarian superpower, China has long sought to project its political system as superior to American democracy.

But while Trump’s trial has been a boon for that narrative, it’s also offered a potential window into something unimaginable and dangerous to the ruling Chinese Communist Party — an elected leader held accountable by independent courts and prosecutors, convicted by a jury of his peers.

For months, Chinese propagandists have attempted to use Trump’s indictments to strengthen Beijing’s narrative of a United States in decline, citing the months-long legal battle as a prime example of the polarization and dysfunction of American politics.

And as China woke up Friday to the news of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, the country’s heavily censored social media lit up.

On Weibo, China’s X-like platform, the verdict became the top trending topic, racking up more than 120 million views by the afternoon.

“Trump’s supporters, hurry up and mobilize, storm the Capitol,” said a top comment under a news brief by state news agency Xinhua.

Another said: “Comrade Nation Builder Trump should not be fighting alone.”

On the Chinese internet, the former US president earned the nickname of Chuan Jianguo, or “Trump, the (Chinese) nation builder” during his time in office – a quip to suggest his isolationist foreign policy and divisive domestic agenda were actually helping Beijing to overtake Washington on the global stage.

Some nationalist influencers gleefully mocked the verdict. “It seems that in 2024, a civil war in America is not just a dream!” said one such blogger with 4 million followers.

Under leader Xi Jinping, China’s most assertive leader in decades, the country’s social media platforms have become increasingly dominated by anti-American, nationalistic voices.

“Although he is guilty, he can still run for president. A ‘criminal’ can become president – this is the ridiculous aspect of Western-style democracy,” said another.

Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of state-run nationalist tabloid Global Times, also weighed in.

“Naturally, Chinese people are watching the spectacle with amusement,” he said on Weibo. “Here’s what everyone is most concerned about: First, will Trump actually go to jail? Second, can he still run for president?”

But analysts say Trump’s conviction could be a tricky topic for Chinese state propagandists to navigate.

“On the one hand, it highlights a rotting and fracturing American democracy. On the other hand, it highlights that a former top leader can be arrested, put on trial, judged by jury of peers and convicted, for relatively small acts of corruption,” wrote Bill Bishop, a China watcher and author of the Sinocism newsletter.

China’s judicial system remains tightly beholden to the ruling Communist Party, according to legal observers, and has a conviction rate of around 99%.

The timing of the conviction also added to the sensitivity, coming just days before the 35th anniversary of Beijing’s bloody crackdown of the pro-democracy Tiananmen movement in 1989, according to Bishop.

So far, Chinese state media outlets have yet to publish the kind of blistering commentaries that previously appeared alongside news coverage of Trump’s legal entanglements.

Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said China’s state media is unlikely to play up the coverage in the days ahead.

“They don’t want to attack Donald Trump because if he becomes the president, they know the consequences. Instead, they’re likely to use it to showcase the problems of the US system,” said Wu, a former reporter in China.

“They need to be really careful about that.”
 

fifth column

Superstar
Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
12,981
Reputation
-402
Daps
22,315
No, no, no. Actually China was in serfdom to the later part of the 20th century. China was ruled by island 🏝️, my guy.

U.S. corporations went over there and trained them because of the unions. That’s a whole different conversation. China didn’t just wake up and know how to manufacture anything. If you want to argue that this is chickens coming home to roost because of corporate greed then that’s a proper conversation. However, China is a tool not brain.
You don’t get it, China’s strength is manufacturing whereas the US strength is services. The US is a Lion trying to climb a tree in the savanna, China is a Leopard.
 

CodeBlaMeVi

I love not to know so I can know more...
Supporter
Joined
Oct 3, 2013
Messages
38,083
Reputation
3,528
Daps
104,780
You don’t get it, China’s strength is manufacturing whereas the US strength is services. The US is a Lion trying to climb a tree in the savanna, China is a Leopard.
You’re right. I don’t get what you’re talking about now.
 
Top