Beijing shifts messaging as trade war dims Asian growth forecast

China is on manoeuvres this week, repositioning itself in the US-China trade war with new and more hard-line messaging.

The government white paper issued on Monday – the day new US tariffs came into effect – upped the rhetoric from Beijing, accusing the US of engaging in “trade bullyism.”

But China’s deputy trade negotiator, Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen, went further yesterday, saying the US is “holding a knife to China’s neck,” when it comes to trade, CNN reports.

Analysts have been quick to identify a shift in China’s messaging, with CNBC summarising China’s new party line as: “we’re trying to save the world from the US.”

Certainly, the white paper goes to significant lengths (it’s 71 pages long) to exonerate Beijing of any wrongdoing in the trade war so far. It highlights how Beijing has never exceeded Washington’s measures in its responses to US aggression, and that it “does not want a trade war.”

It added that US policies are “the greatest source of uncertainty and risk for the recovery of the global economy” – a comment clearly aimed at mobilising the global community to do more in pressuring the White House to change course.

Meanwhile, the economic impact of the trade war is starting to make its presence felt. The Asian Development Bank has revised its Asia growth forecast for 2019, trimming its previous 5.9 per cent prediction to 5.8 per cent, Reuters reports.