The excessive and aggressive tariff policies targeting China, the EU, Canada, Mexico and other countries, reimposed by the US administration, have heightened trade tensions and unraveled the global economic order.

While framed as a strategy to address the alleged trade imbalances, bring back the manufacturing, protect American interest and reclaim economic dominance, the policies are by nature regressive and will backfire.

Historical precedents and ground realities suggest that tariffs unilaterally imposed by a major power will not only fail to restore the American greatness but also deepen global economic fractures, undermine world stability, harm US consumers and businesses, and risk exacerbating America’s relative decline.

Drawing lessons from the previous trade war and in view of the broader implications of the impending one, it becomes more evident that tariffs are not solving problems but making more troubles, a flawed option out of ultra-nationalistic considerations, going against trade liberalization and economic globalization.

The new tariffs of twenty percent imposed on China this time are “justified” by claims about China’s indulgence in the US opioid crisis. It’s unsubstantiated and will crumble given further scrutiny.

In total disregard of China’s strict export controls on fentanyl-related chemical precursors and substances, and its enhanced cooperation with the American authorities, the US. administration has weaponized the fentanyl issue to punish China.

Such shifting blame game echoes the sayings that “one is getting sick while medicating the other for treatment,” and “one is trying to cure his internal disease with external treatment.”

Narcotics once inflicted appalling sufferings on the Chinese nation, causing wounds that are still keenly felt by the people. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the........

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