China has hit back against Vice President JD Vance after he referred to the nation’s population as “Chinese peasants.”
Vance appeared on Fox News last week, where he defended the Trump administration’s widespread new tariffs by asking what the “globalist economy” has done for the U.S. The vice president said the U.S. was “incurring a huge amount of debt to buy things that other countries make.”
He added: “We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.”
A spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, Lin Jian, fired back at a Tuesday press conference that it was “surprising and sad to hear the vice president say such ignorant and impolite words.”
He also noted that “China’s position on Sino-U.S. economic and trade relations has been made very clear.”
China has taken a defiant stance as the Trump administration issued its most recent threat of a further 50 percent tariff on Chinese goods unless Beijing backs down from its retaliatory tariffs on imports from the U.S. The additional tariff would make the total U.S. levy on Chinese goods 104 percent.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in response that the U.S. was guilty of “blackmail,” and vowed that China would “fight to the end.”
Trump has faced significant pushback from world leaders after introducing his global tariffs, which have created chaos in the financial markets.
The trade war between the U.S. and China is set to be expensive for Americans. The U.S. last year bought $440 billion worth of goods from China, the second-largest source of American imports after Mexico.
The White House said Tuesday that the 104 percent tariffs on imports from China will take effect just after midnight. This comes as the Trump administration is taking steps to begin negotiations with other countries targeted by Trump’s tariffs.
The stock market took a downturn Tuesday after global markets previously posted gains on the belief that Trump would be willing to engage in widespread negotiations on the massive trade barriers he has put in place. The White House plans to hold discussions with South Korea and Japan, two top trading partners, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is set to visit for talks next week.
Trump officials, however, have said they will not make talks with China a priority.
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett appeared on Fox News, saying: "Right now, we've received the instruction to prioritize our allies and our trading partners like Japan and Korea and others.”
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