By continually raising the stakes in its trade dispute with China, the United States is no doubt hoping Beijing will fold, but that is a losing bet, China Daily said in an editorial over the weekend.
The United States is lifting an ever larger stone that will smash its own feet, the editorial said.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Thursday he had instructed the U.S. Trade Representative to consider 100 billion U.S. dollars of additional tariffs on Chinese imports, after China matched his earlier 50 billion U.S. dollars billion tariff wager with a similar one of its own.
China has repeatedly made it clear that it will not bow to such pressure, urging the United States not to insist on unilateralist and protectionist trade practices in disregard of opposition from China and the international community.
"We are not taking any options off the table," Gao Feng, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, said at a press briefing Friday.
Although China has remained steadfast in seeking to ease the bilateral trade tensions through dialogue, its stance has been regrettably misread by some U.S. media outlets into willingness to make concessions.
Such a misinterpretation, if taken seriously by U.S. policymakers, would lead to U.S. industries and financial markets feeling the consequences of that misjudgment, the paper said.
According to the paper, China, as the world's second-largest economy, is quite capable of making the United States pay a heavy price if the Trump administration does begin to match its words with actions.
Although the Trump administration declared the tariffs are intended to punish China for what it claims as unfair trade practices, it is the unilateralism and protectionism by the United States that is challenging the global rules of trade, the paper said.
