Irrational behavior of US increases risk of recession

Editor's note: The United States recently announced it would further raise tariffs on Chinese goods, a move that highlights the nature of its trade bullying. Zhong Sheng, a columnist for People's Daily, comments:

According to Morgan Stanley, raising tariffs to 25 percent by the US would be enough to slow global economic growth to below 2.5 percent. Bernard Dewit, chairman of the Belgium-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, believes that the "weaponization of tariffs" by the US will not only lead to increased global trade barriers and a decline in trade volume, but also create a negative demonstration effect triggering vicious competition that drags the global economy into the mire.

The US administration has tried to undermine multilateral trade rules and sabotage the security of global industrial and supply chains, causing turbulence in the international financial market and impeding international trade and world economic growth. Their activities go against the trend of economic globalization and the principles of market competition, and have significantly increased the risk of a global recession. In an interconnected global economy, any attempts to promote decoupling and confrontation through protectionism and unilateralism are a deviation from reality and will not work. An article recently published on The New York Times website revealed the cruel reality that "Apple Inc tried to manufacture a small number of high-end computers in Texas, but could not find a supplier in the US to supply all the screws".