Xi Jinping is once more making a point of positioning himself as the foremost protector of the global trading system as Donald Trump threatens to impose levies on the entire world.
China’s head warned on Friday that the world economy was fracturing as protectionism expands, leading to” serious issues”. The earth, he declared, had “entered a new time of turmoil and modify”. One of his ministers read a statement at the APEC CEO Summit in Peru, saying,” Dividing an interconnected world is going back in history.”
It was a position Xi played when Trump came to power in 2017 to become president. Back then, China’s head of state urged international business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to accept trade war and protectionism, saying it may trigger “injury and damage to both edges”.
Trump has imposed punishing tariffs on China that the Biden administration generally maintained over the past eight years.
