‘Pressure and division’: why Trump’s 14-nation tariff package puts China on edge

When US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to extend a pause on “reciprocal” tariffs until August 1, it offered little comfort to China.

Instead, Beijing’s policymakers may feel increasingly cornered, as Washington also moved to target 14 countries – many of them China’s close trading partners – with tariffs of up to 40 per cent.

This came despite breakthrough talks in London that laid the groundwork to remove most bilateral export controls – from China’s rare earth restrictions to US aircraft engines and chips.

Analysts said the latest US tariff package was a calculated strategy to isolate China and strengthen Washington’s position in coming trade negotiations, as the 90-day trade truce agreed in May is set to expire in early August.

“Trump’s newly announced tariffs … are a continuation of this decoupling agenda,” said Xu Weijun, an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Public Policy at South China University of Technology.

“It’s both pressure and division: the message is clear – ‘cooperative’ countries like Vietnam get preferential treatment, while others face high tariffs,” he said.

South China Morning Post