by WorldTribune Staff, April 27, 2025 Real World News

In China, 600 million people live on $5 a day. Many others live on less.

But the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controls the information China’s citizens get and party leader Xi Jinping “will let his own people absorb any amount of hardship. And he’s been telling them for years to get ready to ‘eat bitterness,’ ” Grant Newsham wrote for Japan Forward on April 24. “He’s also been sanctions-proofing the Chinese economy for years. While he’s not there yet, he’s not helpless either.”

‘Maybe Xi will figure now’s the time to shoot – or ‘go kinetic’ in today’s jargon.’

It would be a mistake, as some U.S. talking heads do, to assume China will respond to the punishing U.S. tariff as Western market-oriented government would would, he suggested.

While Xi looks to rally the public via the CCP’s relentless propaganda machine, Newsham noted that he “can’t be seen caving in to the foreigners. If he does, his many domestic enemies might remove him, quite literally.”

China is “a volatile place. And maybe Trump has more than tariffs and readjusting the trade imbalance in mind. Perhaps this is building to a substantial decoupling from the Chinese market, thus creating free-world and ‘unfree world’ trading blocs,” Newsham wrote.

China’s “Ponzi Scheme” economy, Newsham continued, “depends on exports to earn hard currency. And also imports of American and Western technology.”

The CCP “is in a battle to the death with the free world. The way the CCP sees things, only one of the two can survive – freedom is an existential threat to communism,” Newsham wrote.

So, don’t expect China to react to the tariff war the way the United States would.

Xi and his predecessors “have been preparing for war for years. Since at least 2019, state-linked media have said China is in a ‘people’s war’ against the U.S.,” Newsham wrote.

“Also, at his instruction, Xi’s military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is now competent enough to throw its weight around inside and beyond the first-island chain. Go about it right, and the PLA can even give the Americans a bloody nose.”

Does Xi believe starting a shooting war is a reasonable option?

“He would have the advantage of surprise,” Newsham wrote. “The Americans don’t think he will (or don’t want to entertain the possibility).

“It needn’t be against the U.S., with all that involves, but maybe Taiwan or the Philippines? This would give the U.S. and everyone else a massive jolt. A trade war and a potential nuclear war are two different things. There will be no end to people blaming President Trump, especially as Xi claims, ‘You Americans pushed me into it.’ ”

What if the Americans learned their lesson and realized China is already at war with the United States?

“The U.S. didn’t start this war, but for the first time, it looks like it’s getting ready to fight,” Newsham wrote. “Maybe Xi will figure now’s the time to shoot – or ‘go kinetic’ in today’s jargon. A shooting war may not be how we would respond to tariffs. But we’re not Xi Jinping.”

The American Free Press is Back!

  WorldTribune.com, Xi Jinping’s desperation: What tariff ‘experts’ miss about China’s ‘ponzi scheme’ economy