Tariff War

The Nature of This Round of the Tariff War: Reactive Defense Rather Than Proactive Offense The tariff threats launched by Trump in October 2025 were, in essence, a reactive response rather than a premeditated offensive. Although the Trump administration’s earlier imposition of special port fees on Chinese vessels was indeed a proactive move, the tariff actions in October were more of a knee-jerk reaction born of desperation. Since April 2025, Trump has been advancing a global geopolitical strategy of “encircling the city from the countryside”: first negotiating tariff agreements with peripheral nations such as Japan, South Korea, and Europe, while simultaneously courting countries along the Belt and Road route, with the aim of accumulating enough leverage from these external partners to then pressure China. As of October, his actions have largely aligned with this strategy. Trump has been touting his role in resolving conflicts in India-Pakistan, the Middle East, Russia-Ukraine, and Thailand-Myanmar, even going so far as to express interest in winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Essentially, he aims to project a positive image of the United States, gain the upper hand in the propaganda war, and facilitate the rallying of more nations to jointly target China. In this tariff war, he has packaged himself as the victim using precisely this logic. ...

The True Nature of the Tariff War: Chaos Is Exactly What Trump Wants Recently, global markets have been paying increasing attention to the tariff war. One moment a country is negotiating with the U.S., the next another is—any related news story can sway global market trends. But most people fail to realize that this current state of chaos is precisely the outcome Trump wants most. The more attention people pay to the tariff war, the greater the significance of tariffs as bargaining chips becomes—and the easier it is for Trump to lead them by the nose. In fact, this logic was already crystal clear long before Trump’s election victory last year: once Trump took office, he would inevitably use tariffs as a key bargaining chip to negotiate global interests. Tariffs are always merely a means to an end, not an end in themselves. ...