Does China Need The US?

In setting cartoonishly large tariffs on China, Trump assumes the US has the upper hand. But does China really need America as much as Trump thinks? President Xi hasn’t come crawling to Trump, pleading for softer terms; he’s been working out new trade deals with other Asian nations. Today, Contributing Editor William Pesek exposes the Trump administration’s potential miscalculations regarding China. China has been diversifying its export markets ever since Trump 1.0 in anticipation of just such a trade war, and it no longer needs the US consumer to meet its GDP growth goals. Moreover, China has a higher pain threshold than Americans can fathom (“chiku”) as well as unused stimulus options in its arsenal.