China hits back at Trump’s trade war threats during Biden debate

A Chinese official said Newsweek that the United States would not emerge victorious from a bilateral trade war after former President and current Republican candidate Donald Trump struck a tough tone against Beijing in his debate with President Joe Biden.

“Regarding China-US trade, I would like to emphasize that China-US economic and trade cooperation is inherently beneficial to both sides,” said Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the United States, Newsweek“Nobody will win a trade war or a tariff war.”

“Arbitrary restrictions or protectionist measures would only disrupt normal trade flows and the stability of production and supply chains,” said Pengyu, “and that would benefit no one.”

Trump made this statement while defending his call for a 10 percent tariff on all US goods. In his opinion, these tariffs would increase costs for foreign exporters, but not for domestic consumers.

“It’s just going to force countries that have been ripping us off for years, like China – and many others, to be fair to China – to pay us a lot of money and reduce our deficit enormously,” Trump said during his first debate with Biden in the 2024 election campaign. “And it gives us a lot of power to do other things.”

This was not the only time the former US president mentioned China during the evening.

In fact, Trump mentioned China a dozen times during the 90-minute argument, making it the second most mentioned foreign country after Russia.

The United States and China are the world’s largest and second-largest economies, respectively, and Beijing’s rapid economic, military and technological growth is seen by both the Trump and Biden administrations as the biggest challenge to Washington’s efforts to maintain its global dominance.

However, Liu criticized the tone and frequency of references to China during a debate that was one of the most contentious in U.S. history.

“China adheres to the principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs and does not comment on issues related to the US presidential election,” Liu said. “At the same time, we oppose the US’s repeated use of China as an issue in the election.”

“No matter who is elected, China hopes that China-US relations will continue to develop healthily and stably,” he added. “And we will continue to manage China-US relations in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation.”

But Trump, under whom US-China relations have suffered a sharp deterioration, used numerous opportunities on Friday to mock Biden’s supposedly overly accommodating stance toward Beijing. In addition to trade issues, Trump also praised his own administration’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, a near-universal global treaty that he said would “cost us a trillion dollars, and China nothing, and Russia nothing, and India nothing.”

Biden quickly rejoined the agreement after taking office in 2021, claiming on Thursday that his rival had “done nothing for the environment.” He also took issue with Trump’s self-proclaimed successes in other areas of China policy.

“They have actually not engaged with China and have made no progress,” Biden said. “We have the lowest trade deficit with China since 2010.”

Biden stumbled frequently throughout the debate, at times failing to even finish a sentence, sparking panic among his fellow Democrats and even leading to calls for his resignation – at a time when the 81-year-old president’s age and mental health are constant concerns.

But 78-year-old Trump, who had been ridiculed by fact-checkers for his repeated distortion of the facts throughout the evening, stuck to his argument and even accused the incumbent president of accepting payments from the People’s Republic.

“Under this man, we have the largest budget deficit in the history of our country, and we have the largest budget deficit with China,” Trump said. “He’s paid by China. He’s a Manchurian Candidate. He gets money from China. I think he’s afraid to do business with him or something.”

There is no evidence that Biden has been compromised by Beijing. Biden has in many ways continued Trump-era policies, taking a harder line on China on many issues, and Trump acknowledged this in his subsequent attack.

“But did you notice? He never lifted my tariffs because we bring so much money into the country with the tariffs that I put on China. He never lifted them,” Trump said. “He can’t because it’s too much money. It’s enormous. And we saved our steel industry. And there should have been more, but he didn’t.”

Another argument used by Trump was that Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin would “not respect” and “not fear” Biden, paving the way for a potential World War III scenario.

Biden, who has falsely claimed in the past that he traveled 17,000 miles with Xi and spent more time with him than with any other head of state, argued that the most likely path to ruin was a repeat Trump presidency – especially if the three-time Republican candidate offered Putin a favorable deal in the ongoing war in Ukraine.

China was not the only country mentioned in the debate to respond to the candidates’ comments at a time when US leadership was being questioned around the world.

After Trump finally declared that he would not accept the terms of Putin’s peace proposal for Ukraine, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Russian state news agency TASS on Friday: “The time will come and Mr. Trump, regardless of his future status, will understand that there are no alternatives to what President Putin is proposing.”

The Iranian mission to the United Nations also announced Newsweek a response to competing attempts by both candidates to claim they are tougher on the Islamic Republic.

“We have no intention of interfering in the domestic politics of the United States,” said the Iranian mission Newsweek“However, we do not give much credence to the statements made in these debates and campaign activities, as they are more emotional than logical and lack strategic underpinnings.”

The media around the world, including key U.S. allies, also followed the matter closely, with many focusing primarily on Biden’s missteps.