Washington's extreme tariff strikes will backfire

In the world of geopolitics, "maximum pressure" is fast becoming shorthand for "maximum miscalculation". The United States, in its latest attempt to strong-arm China, has unveiled a new round of tariff hikes and scrapped the longstanding duty-free threshold for small packages shipped from China. The result is the highest tariff wall in the history of Sino-US trade. It's impressive in scope, if not in strategy.

Behind these moves lies a persistent delusion: that the United States has long been short-changed by global trade. Acting on this grievance, Washington is wielding tariffs like a hammer, hoping every economic challenge is a nail. But in doing so, it is chipping away not at China's economic resolve, but at the very foundations of the global system it once helped build. Flouting World Trade Organization rules and reneging on hard-won commitments, the US is undermining the rules-based multilateral trade order and accelerating the erosion of global economic stability.

This strategy is not just short-sighted — it's self-sabotaging. For every tariff slapped on Chinese goods, there's a ripple effect across global supply chains, many of which still flow through Chinese ports, factories, and innovation hubs. Yes, the damage to Chinese companies is real — but it's also diminishing. China has been here before. And every time Washington pulls this stunt, the world gets a little better at working around it.