Chinese State Media Ignores Trump's Tariff Announcement, Focuses on Fentanyl

Forex - Chinese state media, in late Tuesday editorials, overlooked U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's promise to impose additional tariffs on Chinese goods and accused the former president of blaming China for his failure to address the country's fentanyl crisis.

On Monday, Trump stated that he would impose "an additional 10% tariff on any kind of additional tariff" on imports from China. He had previously mentioned tariffs exceeding 60% on Chinese goods. The tariff threat shakes the industrial complex of China, which sells more than $400 billion worth of goods to the U.S. annually and produces hundreds of billions of dollars in components for products Americans buy elsewhere.

Economists have begun to lower growth targets for the $19 trillion economy for 2025 and 2026. The editorials of the Communist Party's media outlets, China Daily and Global Times, focused directly on Trump's rationale for imposing tariffs: fentanyl. The headline of China Daily's editorial on Tuesday read, "Blaming Others Won't End America's Drug Crisis," while Global Times urged, "The U.S. should not underestimate China's goodwill in combating drugs following Trump's remarks."

China Daily stated, "The excuse the president-elect put forward to justify his threat of additional tariffs on imports from China is very strained. The world clearly sees that the root cause of the fentanyl crisis in the U.S. is the U.S. itself." The newspaper continued, "There are no winners in trade wars. If the U.S. continues to politicize economic and trade issues using tariffs as a weapon, no side will benefit from it."