China justified in hitting back to protect interests

Nine hours after the United States published a proposed list of China imports worth around $50 billion in annual trade it has targeted for additional tariffs, China announced a list of US goods totaling the same value that will be subject to equivalent tariff hikes, fulfilling its promise of retaliatory "measures of the same strength and the same scope".

Unlike some other US trade partners who succumbed to the Trump administration's raising of tariffs on steel and aluminum products, Beijing, as it has repeatedly said, is ready to stand toe-to-toe with Washington and trade blows if the wheeler-dealers in the US stubbornly persist with their protectionist gambit.

The Section 301 investigation, on which the latest list is based, is a stick that Washington often wields to intimidate its trade partners into conceding to its demands.