Direct News: Mr. Chen, during the white-hot stage of the tariff war between China and the United States, the US Senate confirmed Perdue, who was nominated by Trump, as the ambassador to China. What role will he play?

 

Special commentator Chen Bing: At a time when the tariff war between China and the United States is heating up, the United States seems to want to negotiate with China. Trump even made up a story saying that China and the United States were in talks, but it was immediately exposed by the Chinese side, who said there was no such thing. On the 100th day of Trump’s inauguration, due to launching a full-scale tariff war, his popularity was surprisingly low, lower than the approval rates of previous US presidents during their first 100 days in office. So the United States promptly confirmed its ambassador to China, hoping that Perdue could smooth out Sino-US relations.

 

Last year, Trump nominated Perdue, a businessman who has lived in Hong Kong for many years, as the ambassador to China, believing that his business experience is highly suitable for the position of ambassador to China, “which will help establish a productive working relationship with Chinese leaders.” Perdue has dual experience in politics and business. He has served as a Republican senator and is more in the business world. He has 40 years of international business experience and has lived in Singapore and Hong Kong, China for many years. The business activities he is engaged in, which are concentrated in clothing, retail, sports goods and chain stores, are precisely the areas that the United States urgently needs to change at present. American retailers have warned Trump that if they still insist on imposing high tariffs on imported products, there will be no goods on American shelves and American consumers may have to take to the streets to demonstrate.

 

Perdue is also a close confidant of Trump and can call the president directly. So, Perdue’s nomination has now been confirmed at just the right time. Against the backdrop of the tariff war, he may become a reliable contact point, familiar with the positions and cultures of both China and the United States, and thus is important for stabilizing the relations between the two countries. Of course, Trump’s policy towards China is mainly led by the president and Treasury Secretary Basent and Commerce Secretary Lutnick. Whether Perdue can play a lubricating role in the tariff war between China and the United States remains to be seen

 

Since the beginning of this year, the global trade order has faced new and severe challenges. How is the performance of China’s foreign trade imports and exports? How to deal with trade wars and tariff wars? On the 14th, a relevant official from the General Administration of Customs responded to current economic and trade hotspots at a press conference held by the Information Office of The State Council.

When talking about the situation: “The sky won’t fall.”

According to customs statistics, in the first quarter of this year, China’s imports and exports of goods trade reached 10.3 trillion yuan, increasing by 1.3% year-on-year. Among them, exports increased by 6.9%, rising by 3.5 percentage points compared with the previous two months. Although imports decreased by 6%, the decline narrowed by 1.3 percentage points compared with the previous two months. Overall, China’s foreign trade imports and exports have achieved a stable start.

Lu Daliang, director of the Statistics and Analysis Department of the General Administration of Customs, said that in the first quarter, China’s exports demonstrated strong resilience under pressure: Exports to over 170 countries and regions have seen growth. Exports of ships and Marine engineering equipment have maintained a growth momentum for four consecutive years, increasing by 10.8% in the first quarter. Wind turbine generators, lithium batteries, and electric vehicles have grown by 43.2%, 18.8%, and 8.2% respectively.

What’s your take on the decline in imports? Lu Daliang believes that this is the result of the combined effect of multiple factors, with different commodities experiencing both rises and falls. Among them, affected by the decline in international commodity prices, in the first quarter, the average import prices of iron ore and coal in China both dropped by more than 20%, and the average import prices of crude oil and soybeans also fell by 5.7% and 16.6% respectively. These price factors affected the overall import growth rate by 2.6 percentage points.

There are also some highlights in imports. The rapid growth of domestic industrial production has driven an increase in the import of components and equipment. In the first quarter, the imports of automatic data processing equipment components, ships and Marine engineering equipment in China increased by 95.6% and 52.5% respectively. During the same period, the increase in imports of some consumer goods also demonstrated the vitality and vigor of China’s consumption sector.