Putin to Visit China to Deepen 'No Limits' Partnership with Xi

FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a signing ceremony following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 21, 2023. Sputnik/Mikhail Tereshchenko/Pool via Reuters
FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a signing ceremony following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 21, 2023. Sputnik/Mikhail Tereshchenko/Pool via Reuters
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Putin to Visit China to Deepen 'No Limits' Partnership with Xi

FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a signing ceremony following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 21, 2023. Sputnik/Mikhail Tereshchenko/Pool via Reuters
FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a signing ceremony following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 21, 2023. Sputnik/Mikhail Tereshchenko/Pool via Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Xi Jinping in China this week in a bid to deepen a partnership forged between the United States' two biggest strategic competitors. Putin will attend the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on Oct. 17-18, his first trip outside the former Soviet Union since the Hague-based International Criminal Court issued a warrant for him in March over the deportation of children from Ukraine.China and Russia declared a "no limits" partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two. The United States casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat while US President Joe Biden argues that this century will be defined by an existential contest between democracies and autocracies, Reuters reported."Over the past decade, Xi has built with Putin's Russia the most consequential undeclared alliance in the world," Graham Allison, professor at Harvard University and a former assistant secretary of defense under Bill Clinton, told Reuters."The US will have to come to grips with the inconvenient fact that a rapidly rising systemic rival and a revanchist one-dimensional superpower with the largest nuclear arsenal in the world are tightly aligned in opposing the USA." Biden has referred to Xi as a "dictator" and has said Putin is a "killer" and a leader who cannot remain in power. Beijing and Moscow have scolded Biden for those remarks. Since the Ukraine war, Putin has mostly stayed within the former Soviet Union, though he visited Iran last year for talks with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.'NO LIMITS'?Once the senior partner in the global Communist hierarchy, Russia three decades after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union is now considered a junior partner of a resurgent Communist China under Xi, China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.Putin and Xi share a broad worldview, which sees the West as decadent and in decline just as China challenges US supremacy in everything from quantum computing and synthetic biology to espionage and hard military power.But Xi, who leads a $18 trillion economy, must balance close personal ties with Putin with the reality of dealing with the $27 trillion economy of the United States - still the world's strongest military power, and the richest.The United States has warned China against supplying Putin with weapons as Russia, a $2 trillion economy, battles Ukrainian forces backed by the United States and the European Union.Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said the optics of the Ukraine war made big public deals unlikely right now."Putin is definitely a guest of honor," Gabuev said, adding that military and nuclear cooperation would be discussed."At the same time I think China is not interested in signing any additional deals at least in public, because anything that can be portrayed as providing additional cash flow to Putin’s war chest and Putin’s war machine is not good at this point." Adding to the complexity of military cooperation is uncertainty over the fate of Defence Minister Li Shangfu, who has not been seen in public for more than six weeks. The heads of Russian energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft , Alexei Miller and Igor Sechin, will join Putin's retinue during his visit, sources familiar with the plans have told Reuters. Russia wants to secure a deal to sell more natural gas to China and plans to build the Power of Siberia-2 pipeline, which would traverse Mongolia and have an annual capacity of 50 billion cubic meters (bcm).It is unclear if the gas deal - particularly the price and the cost of building it - will be agreed.



Trump Hits Back with Tariffs of 125%, after China Raises Its Tariff on US Goods to 84%

A general view shows the Huangpu River and the financial district in Shanghai on April 9, 2025. (AFP)
A general view shows the Huangpu River and the financial district in Shanghai on April 9, 2025. (AFP)
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Trump Hits Back with Tariffs of 125%, after China Raises Its Tariff on US Goods to 84%

A general view shows the Huangpu River and the financial district in Shanghai on April 9, 2025. (AFP)
A general view shows the Huangpu River and the financial district in Shanghai on April 9, 2025. (AFP)

President Donald Trump on Wednesday raised tariffs on China to 125%, hours after China boosted taxes on American imports to 84% and vowed to "fight to the end" in an escalating battle that threatens to disrupt trade between the world's two largest economies.

The new rate levied by Beijing, which has taken effect, comes in response to Trump's earlier move to raise the tariff on Chinese products to 104% as part of increases that hit US trading partners worldwide. Europe and Canada also hit back Wednesday with new tariffs on imports from America.

Citing lack of respect, Trump responded by raising tariffs on China to 125%, while pausing tariffs on most countries for 90 days.

The hikes are the latest in an ongoing trade war that threatens to raise prices for consumers in America and derail China's attempts to reinvigorate its sluggish economy. The response from the Chinese government signals its determination not to bend to Trump's pressure, despite the risks.

"If the US insists on further escalating its economic and trade restrictions, China has the firm will and abundant means to take necessary countermeasures and fight to the end," the Ministry of Commerce said before announcing its latest tariff hike.

Beijing also imposed restrictions on doing business with nearly a dozen American companies and said it was launching a new challenge to the American tariffs at the World Trade Organization.

China is a major exporter to US but no longer No. 1  

The United States sent a record $199 billion in exports to China last year, while China exported $463 billion in goods and services to the United States, third behind Mexico and Canada, according to the US Commerce Department.

China was the top source of US imports as recently as 2022 but it has lost ground to America’s neighbors amid heightened tensions with the United States.

The European Chamber of Commerce in China accused the US of rolling back many of the principles that have underpinned its approach to trade and investment. It said that Trump's tariffs would have a significant impact on European companies exporting from China to the US, forcing them to rethink their business models and supply chains.

"This will lead to a substantial increase in operational costs and inefficiencies, and ultimately higher prices for consumers," it said.

No ‘easy path’ to restarting US-China trade talks

Though the US and China may want to find a way back to the negotiating table, "this won’t be an easy path to navigate with both countries doubling down and bilateral engagement at a virtual standstill," said former US trade official Wendy Cutler, a vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

China does not appear interested in bargaining, as some other countries have started doing.

"If the US truly wants to resolve issues through dialogue and negotiation, it should adopt an attitude of equality, respect and mutual benefit," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.

The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a travel advisory asking its citizens to evaluate the risks of visiting the US as tourists and to exercise caution. The advisory, which came shortly after the announcement of the tariff hike, cited the deterioration in economic and trade relations as well as the "safety situation" in America.

China's response has gone from measured to tough 

Trump has now raised the tariff on Chinese goods five times since taking office in January. 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% tariff 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.

Trump then added a 50% tariff on goods from China, saying negotiations were terminated, and bringing the cumulative US tariff to 104%. China responded by raising the tariff on American products by the same amount, bringing its total rate to 84%.

China's latest measures include adding 11 American companies to an "unreliable entities" list that bars Chinese companies from selling them goods that could have military uses. Among the companies are American Photonics, and SYNEXXUS, which both work with the American military.

A Chinese position paper issued Wednesday said that the US has not honored the promises it made in an earlier "Phase One" trade deal concluded during Trump’s first term. As an example, it said a US law that would ban TikTok unless it is sold by its Chinese parent company violates a promise that neither would "pressure the other party to transfer technology to its own individuals."

Trump signed an order to keep TikTok running for another 75 days last week after a potential deal to sell the app to American owners was put on ice. Representatives from ByteDance, the parent company, told the White House that the Chinese government would no longer approve a deal until there could be talks on trade.

"History and facts have proven that the United States’ increase in tariffs will not solve its own problems," the Commerce Ministry said in a statement introducing the paper. "Instead, it will trigger sharp fluctuations in financial markets, push up US inflation pressure, weaken the US industrial base and increase the risk of a US economic recession, which will ultimately only backfire on itself."