What if?

"President Donald Trump...dropped new tariffs rates on imports from most US trade partners to 10% for 90 days to allow trade negotiations with these countries." He also increased the tariff rate on China to 125% "effective immediately". CNBC. In retaliation, "China will impose 125% tariffs on US goods from Saturday (12 April), up from 84% previously announced, as the trade war between the world's powerful nations continued." ET. "China hiked its levies on imports of US goods to 125%.., hitting back at Donald Trump's decision to single out the world's No 2 economy for higher duties, while dismissing the US President's tariff strategy as 'a joke'." Trump meanwhile increased tariffs on China to 145%. Reuters. "Given that American goods are no longer marketable in China under the current tariff rates, if the US further raises tariff rates on Chinese exports, China will disregard such measures," said the Chinese foreign ministry. President Xi Jinping called it "unilateral bullying". MC. That looks like an admission that China already taxes US goods so highly that any more makes no difference. Also, China imported just $143.5 billion from the US while exporting nearly $439 billion worth of goods in 2024 (census.gov), so it may have run out of anything to tax. No nation can surpass China in "unilateral bullying", as it has claimed the entire South China Sea as its own territory by using a fictitious 'nine-dash line' (wikipedia) and is using its military power for maritime piracy, prompting former President of the Philippines Benigno Aquino to compare China to Hitler's Germany (BBC). "Ironically, China can only blame itself" because "China uses various non-tariff barriers , such as stringent regulations and licensing requirements to protect domestic industries." "Chinese private companies doing business in other countries are seen as arms of the state and have also been accused of working to advance the interest of the Chinese state in other countries such as through spying or theft of critical technology." ET. With spectacular results, as its economy grew at an average of 10% over 30 years. wikipedia. Economists have labeled Trump as 'stupid' and his policies as a sign of 'weakness' of the US. ET. Washington is losing its advantage in Asia. "In contrast, Beijing is showing it knows how to treat its friends. In December it lowered its tariffs to zero on certain products from least-developed countries it has diplomatic relations with," wrote Karishma Vaswani. Why are so-called experts crawling out of the woodwork to proclaim that Trump's policies will fail when similar policies have served China so tremendously? What if Trump's policies may be successful? Scary.