In response to Beijing’s continuing trade war, which saw both countries impose severe new taxes on each other’s goods, China appointed Li Chenggang as its new leading international trade negotiator on Wednesday.
Lee will then serve as the country’s ambassador to foreign trade negotiations, according to the Chinese government of human resources. He most recently served as China’s adviser to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, where he has decades of experience in international trade politics.
Li’s vital contribution to the US-US trade agreement for 2020 was crucial. He previously worked as an assistant secretary at the business ministry and previously held the position of lieutenant permanent representative to the UN in Switzerland.
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No formal justification for the administration change was provided, but it comes at a time when Taiwanese officials are considering various alternatives to counteract US actions. Among them are strengthening business relations with Europe and the Global South and concentrating on the nation’s 1.4 billion consumer home market.
The Trump administration’s administration is putting more pressure on China’s economy as it just imposed 145 percent taxes on Chinese goods, while Beijing retaliated with 125 percent duties on US exports.
These tit-for-tat actions are a result of a larger business conflict that has stifled the world’s markets and hampered China’s economic recovery.
Over objectives, China’s economy increased by 5.4 % in the first quarter of 2025, boosted by powerful import growth. Many of these imports were “front-loaded” before Washington’s April 2 tax hike date.
Nonetheless, economists predict that as soon as these taxes are implemented, their genuine effects will start to appear. According to Zhiwei Zhang of Pinpoint Asset Management,” the destruction from the trade war may show up in the micro data next month.”
Sheng Laiyun, assistant director of the National Bureau of Statistics, addressing the current situation, said that the US’s decision to impose higher tariffs would put some strain on China’s economy and international business, but that it “would not change the general pattern of China’s market continuing to improve in the long run.”
