The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations and the 80th anniversary of the victory in the World Anti-Fascist War. As President Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out, “what is the trend of today’s world? The answer is unequivocal. It is the trend of peace, development, cooperation and win-win progress.” Today’s world has long evolved into a deeply interconnected community where no one exists in isolation.
Economic globalization and open cooperation are inevitable in the course of development of mankind. Over the 30 years since the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO), global trade volume has surged more than fivefold from approximately $5 trillion in 1994 to $33 trillion in 2024. Economic globalization has promoted the flow of goods and capital, the progress of science, technology and civilizations, exchanges among peoples, and improvements of people’s well-being at an unprecedented pace.
The US is the largest beneficiary of economic globalization. As the world’s largest economy, the US has long accounted for over 25% of global GDP, while the US dollar, as the dominant international reserve currency, comprises about 60% of global foreign exchange reserves. With these advantages, the US has enjoyed enormous benefits from economic globalization, particularly with a huge surplus and dominant advantage in trade in services. However, in recent years, it has refused to acknowledge the gains from free trade and no longer lent its support for globalization.
The US abuse of tariffs grossly violates WTO rules, severely undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system, and gravely disrupts the global economic order. These actions flagrantly contravene fundamental economic principles and market rules, defy the irreversible trend of economic globalization, and arrogantly prioritize self-interest over the common interests of all countries, constituting textbook unilateralism, protectionism, and economic bullying. The so-called reciprocal tariffs are neither reciprocal nor fair, but rather a product of power politics in the economic sphere. Such a regression to might-makes-right tactics and the law of the jungle is a clear step backward in history.
The IMF has issued a stark warning that such tariff policy could reduce global economic growth by 1.5 percentage points by 2025. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala noted that the US tariffs could lead to an overall contraction of around 1 percent in global merchandise trade volumes this year. The US has even targeted vulnerable economies designated as the least developed countries by the UN with high tariffs. This will deal an unprecedented heavy blow to poor countries that have simple economic structure and are highly reliant on export, exacerbating wealth disparities between countries, and depriving countries, especially the Global South, of their right to development.
The US tariff policies inflict disproportionate systemic damage on African economies. Based on the absurd logic that trade surpluses equate to cheating, the US has launched indiscriminate attacks on African countries, even though WTO principles clearly stipulate for special treatment for developing economies. This has already brought collateral damage such as currency devaluation and stock market fluctuations. Growth in major African economies will inevitably slow down, with simple-structured economies suffering severe setbacks. The industrialization process and poverty reduction efforts in Africa may be frustrated.
As President Xi Jinping once said, “one will not be seen in a more favourable light after blowing out others’ lamp; nor will they go farther by blocking others’ paths.” History has proven and will continue to prove that protectionism and tariff hikes never solve economic woes, nor can they “Make America Great Again.” In 2018, under the banner of “bringing manufacturing back,” the US imposed tariffs on approximately 250 billion worth of Chinese goods. As a result, the US trade deficit not only failed to narrow but continued to expand, causing American consumers to pay approximately 57 billion US dollars more in tariffs each year. Similarly, in the 1930s, under the pretext of “protecting domestic industries”, US introduced the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act to impose tariffs significantly, triggering a global trade war. This not only plunged US into the Great Depression, but also led to an economic disaster worldwide, followed by the World War II.
As the second largest economy and second largest market for consumer goods, China will keep widening its doors to the world, no matter how the international situation changes. China remains committed to advancing high-standard opening up, countering uncertainties from a rapidly changing external environment with the stability of high-quality development. China stands ready to share development opportunities with the rest of the world to achieve mutual benefits and remain a reliable engine for world economic growth.
China does not provoke trouble but never fears it. Pressuring and threatening shall never be the option one should resort to when dealing with China. China has taken and will continue to take resolute measures to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests. If the US wants to fight, China will fight till the end. If the US wants to talk, the door can be open, but only on the basis of equality and mutual respect.
As a Chinese saying goes, those who uphold justice gain wide support, while those who act against it have little. In this imposed tariff war, China stands on the right side of history and the side of international fairness and justice, with the confidence and strength to defy and defeat all threats and blackmail. Domestically, China has the unwavering support of its people, a vast 1.4-billion consumer market and a complete industrial chain, which enables the Chinese economy to sustain on its own. China’s economic growth rate stood at 5.4% in the first quarter of this year. Internationally, if the US puts its own interests over the public good of the international community and sacrifices all countries’ legitimate interests for its own hegemony, it will for sure meet stronger opposition and ultimately end in failure.
By taking necessary countermeasures against US bullying, China not only safeguards its own rights, but also the common interests of the international community, particularly Global South countries, preventing humanity from regressing to a lawless jungle of might-makes-right. In reality, China’s firm countermeasures have alleviated the US tariff shocks to global supply chains, created space for international dialogue and curbed the rampant spread of protectionism.
There are no winners in trade or tariff wars. Protectionism is a dead end. In the face of US bullying and coercion, no country can remain unscathed. Compromise and concession offer no way out, unity and collaboration hold the key to a promising future. The international community, particularly the Global South, must unite in self-strengthening, enhance coordination, defend shared interests, uphold true multilateralism, and jointly safeguard the UN-centered international system and the WTO-centered multilateral trading regime. Together, we must advance an equal and orderly multipolar world, promote a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, and build a community with a shared future for mankind.
For African countries striving for development and revitalization, a free and open multilateral trading system is of vital importance, and a stable and cooperative international environment is indispensable. China is a trustworthy and predictable friend and partner of African countries. In sharp contrast to the current trade war, at the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing Summit, China announced unilateral market opening, giving all LDCs having diplomatic relations with China, including 33 countries in Africa, zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines. This has made China the first major developing country and the first major economy to take such a step, turning its vast market into Africa’s vast opportunity.
At present, China-Zambia cooperation in agriculture, mining, infrastructure, green energy, health care, education and other fields is flourishing. China stands ready to work with Zambia to implement the consensus reached by our Heads of State, to deliver on the Ten Partnership Actions for China and Africa to jointly advance modernization, including supporting Zambia in accelerating its industrialization and agricultural modernization, implementing zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines, fostering new growth drivers such as digital, green and AI industries, so as to take the China-Zambia Comprehensive Strategic and Cooperative Partnership to a new level and contribute to building an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new area.
（By Ambassador Han Jing）