WSJ Board: “China Called Trump’s Bluff And Won”

From the Wall Street Journal editorial board:

Another harsh reality is that China called Mr. Trump’s bluff and seems to have won this round. When Mr. Trump imposed his tariffs in the first term, President Xi Jinping retaliated with some restraint and sent a delegation to negotiate a trade deal.

This time he retaliated in tit-for-tat fashion and pushed all of his anti-U.S. economic and diplomatic levers. He has cut off U.S. access to crucial rare-earth minerals, stopped the delivery of Boeing jets, looked elsewhere for food and natural-gas imports, and unleashed regulators against American companies.

Beijing has also warned countries not to do trade deals with the U.S. that exclude China—or else. With even U.S. allies facing Mr. Trump’s tariff assault, Beijing’s threat has resonated in a way that it never previously did. U.S. diplomatic sway is ebbing.

Read the full editorial.

Is this Trump’s François Mitterrand moment? That historic U-turn comes to mind as we watch the U.S. President execute a reversal by stages in his tariff agenda.https://t.co/c1m5bDHO8U

— Wall Street Journal Opinion (@WSJopinion) April 24, 2025