With a Fresh US Tariff Kicking In, China Faces ‘Huge Challenge’ at Home: Analysts

The extra tariffs are set to collide with China’s exports, a key pillar of the CCP’s disease economy.

President Donald Trump has expressed his willingness to negotiate with Beijing as US tariffs on Chinese imports have risen dramatically to 104% since April 9th. However, analysts are low hopeful that China’s Communist Party (CCP) leaders will be upset by tariff issues despite the fact that exports are a key pillar of the country’s struggles with economy.

“To maintain his face, the Chinese Communist Party will not ease that attitude,” said William Chung, an expert on the US-Taywan relationship at the National Defense Institute, a Taiwanese government-funded think tank.

“While there is a possibility that (Beijing) will be involved in (with Washington) privately, the Communist Party has made an absolute statement, leaving very limited room for maneuvering,” Chong told the Epoch Times.

Chung said the CCP is currently facing a “big challenge” due to Washington’s move.

Trump announced further 34% mutual tariffs in China on April 2, bringing total collection of 54% on Chinese goods. The CCP retaliated for threatening to impose an additional 50% tariff on China, raising the total to 104%, and pledging an additional 34% tax on all American imports if Trump did not reverse the course.

In response, China’s Commerce Department said the administration would not accept Trump’s demands and vow to “fight to the end,” the ministry said in a statement issued on April 8.

Trump later told social media that China “want to do business badly, but don’t know how to start it.”

“We’re waiting for their phone call. It’s going to happen!”

The White House has confirmed that an additional tax on Chinese products, currently 104%, will come into effect at 12:01pm on April 9th.

Lee Yeau-Tarn, a professor at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, noted that China’s response to the latest US tariff hikes is in sharp contrast to other Asian countries.

After Trump announced that he had a 32% mandate on imports from Taiwan, Taiwan’s President Rai Qingte has supported Taiwan’s investment and proposed implementing zero tariffs with the United States. On April 8, Foreign Minister Lin Chia Lang said negotiations between Taipei and Washington could begin “anytime.”

Vietnam has also been turned into negotiations. I spoke to Lam, the leader of the Vietnamese ruling Communist Party, over the phone on April 4th. There, two leaders agreed to explore options for tariff removal. On April 8, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh announced that Trump had requested a massive 46% tariff delay that he announced last week, and had pledged to increase the purchase of American goods in return.

In contrast, CCP responded quickly and added a TIT-FOR-TAT tariff. China’s Ministry of Commerce has also expanded its “unreliable entity list” to include 11 companies and controls imposed on several rare earth minerals essential to the global market.

Additionally, Chinese state media released a series of commentary on April 5 and 6, denounced Trump’s tariff strategy, sought to downplay its imminent impact on the economy.

“While US tariff abuse affects us, read the frontline article featured in at least five national newspapers on April 6th: ‘The sky won’t fall.’

But what Beijing didn’t mention is that it has harnessed globalization to its advantage over the years, said the Taiwanese professor.

“They will subsidize their businesses and encourage their economy by engaging in intellectual property theft from developed countries, particularly the US,” Lee told the Epoch Times. In this way, “they lowered the price of their products and monopolized various industries. When there is excess capacity, they dump the products into the global market, creating trade imbalances,” Lee said.

The container-equipped cargo ship was anchored on January 13, 2025 at Qingdao Port in Shandong Province, eastern China. STR/AFP via Getty Images

According to Lee, Beijing’s response reflects the need for customs duties.

“In the end, the only country in the world facing the US will be Communist China,” Lee said. “The tariff war is therefore also a necessary measure to prevent the CCP’s totalitarian dictatorship from winning the free and democratic world.”

It collides with the Chinese economy

While announcing the 34% mutual tariffs in China on April 2, Trump said the CCP has “a huge advantage” for the United States over the years.

“Americans are paying a huge price,” Trump said at the White House Rose Garden.

In a fact sheet released following the announcement, the White House stated that China, the world’s largest commodity exporter, has chosen China for years of non-market trade policies and practices, which have provided Beijing with global control in major manufacturing and devastated the US industry.

Trump had imposed a 20% tariff on Chinese imports prior to his mutual tariffs, citing concerns about the influx of fentanyl from China into the country. The new 50% tariff set to take effect on April 9th is above it.

The president also signed an executive order on April 2nd that would impose tariffs on low-value packages from China, effectively closing a loophole that allowed Chinese e-commerce companies to export goods under $800 without tariffs to the United States.

David J. Wong, a US-based economic researcher focusing on China’s trade policy, said Washington’s fresh tariffs will put pressure on China’s exports, which are important for the world’s second-largest economy, especially in light of the long-term property crisis and slowing consumer spending.

People will protest next to the development of the real estate developer Country Garden in Beijing, China on August 15, 2023 (Pedro Pardo/AFP — On August 15th, 2023, people protest next to the development of the real estate developer Country Garden in Beijing, China. Pedro Paldo/AFP via Getty Images

Wong is expected to hit China’s small and medium-sized hard manufacturers particularly hard, as many people rely heavily on the US market.

“The impact is not catastrophic, but tariffs further narrow down the already thin profit margins and encourage businesses to accelerate their supply chain relocation from China,” Wong told the Epoch Times.

A staff member of the trading company at Shenzhen, a high-tech hub adjacent to Hong Kong, has expressed concern that the fees will affect his company’s exports to the US market as prices need to increase prices.

“In the past… we could lower prices if we still had space,” he told the Epoch Times, demanding that they not be identified to avoid any influence from the administration.

Nowadays, increasing prices seems to be the only real option. Because “our factories need to make profits to keep running,” he said.

“The worst case scenario is that there is less business in the US market,” he added.

Li Yuanhua, a former associate professor of history at the Chinese capital, Normal University, told the Epoch Times that as an authoritarian and totalitarian regime, he does whatever Beijing wants.

But he said, “If the standard of living for today’s Chinese people falls sharply over decades, can they deal with it? With the growing rage of the people, can the CCP really maintain a grip on power?

“There are not many cards left in CCP to play.”

Luo Ya and Jiang Zuoyi contributed to this report.