Graphic Truth: Taking aim in a US-China trade war

August 24, 2019

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Wrecking the global economy's hopes for a relaxing late-August Friday, China and the US have taken fresh shots at each other in their deepening trade war.

First, China announced new tariffs on US goods in response to US levies on China's exports that are set to take effect next month.

Trump responded with a vintage tweet storm, lashing out at China and demanding that US firms stop doing business there. The Dow plunged as markets waited for the next shoe to drop. And drop it did: later in the day Trump announced higher tariffs on nearly everything that China exports to the United States.

Why now? Bear in mind, all of this comes right as Trump is leaving for this weekend's G7 summit in France. That gathering already promised to be a testy one – but with the global economy slowing, the impact of Trump's increasingly nasty trade war with China will add fresh tensions to the occasion.

So where are we in the trade war now? Here is an updated list of what measures each side has imposed to date, and what's next. Both sides have a lot at stake, but from the looks of it, the list isn't going to get shorter any time soon.

Tensions between China and the West heat up amid military exercises

China's President Xi Jinping attends a meeting in Brazil in November 2024.

REUTERS/Adriano Machado/File Photo

Just days after a Chinese naval helicopter nearly collided with a Philippine patrol plane over a contested reef, China’s military started live-fire drills in waterways near Vietnam on Monday and between Australia and New Zealand over the weekend in an “unprecedented” display of firepower.

Graphic Truth: Taking aim in a US-China trade war

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Tensions between China and the West heat up amid military exercises

Just days after a Chinese naval helicopter nearly collided with a Philippine patrol plane over a contested reef, China’s military started live-fire drills in waterways near Vietnam on Monday and between Australia and New Zealand over the weekend in an “unprecedented” display of firepower.

Graphic Truth: Taking aim in a US-China trade war

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More from GZERO Media

India’s political class is in an uproar over claims by US President Donald Trump that USAIDgave $18 million to increase their country’s voter turnout.

A new measure would cut back the popular program in order to fund continuation of Trump's first term tax cuts.

The 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution is crystal clear: No person can be elected to the presidency more than twice. Ratified in 1951, it was a response to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four-term tenure.

GZEROMEDIA

Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: Germany’s election results are in, with the far-right AfD party expanding their vote share to second place. Ian Bremmer looks at what the outcome means for the future of Europe and the transatlantic alliance.

“Those same geopolitical tensions that we see in physical space certainly are playing out in digital space as well,” says Anne Neuberger, former US Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technologies.

Just days after a Chinese naval helicopter nearly collided with a Philippine patrol plane over a contested reef, China’s military started live-fire drills in waterways near Vietnam on Monday and between Australia and New Zealand over the weekend in an “unprecedented” display of firepower.