On June 15, within six hours of the US government’s announcement of tariffs on $50 billion of imports from China, the Chinese government immediately issued countermeasures equal in intensity, with the same effective date as the United States. The China-US trade spats, which continued for almost three months, have dragged to the edge of a “trade war”. Despite the reluctance to engage in the trade war, China has moved quickly to defend its legitimate rights and to protect the trade order, for the common interests of people all over the world.

I: the Trade War is the Competition between Two Systems

The China-US trade war is not only a matter of commodity tariffs on trade, but a competition between two systems. The US economy is declining rapidly but China’s is rising continuously. With this in mind, it is clear to understand the reason the US is engaging in a variety of tricks in negotiations, such as big stick, coercion and capricious behavior.

China’s achievement made by its system and model has given hope to people all over the world. The fear of the US toward China is way greater than the fear based on China’s export as well as the rise of China’s economic status. So the goal of the US is to contain China, but how long will the containment last? Probably 20 or 30 years. Unfortunately, the US will be harmed by its unilateralism as well as trade protectionism.

A numbers of experts believe this just-launched trade war by the US is a serious matter of mistrust, but much worse is American isolationism. The US is moving toward isolationism swiftly and has adopted unilateral trade protection policies toward the European Union, China, Canada and Mexico.

II: Trade protectionism will lead to American decadence

The trade war cannot solve the issue of the trade imbalance between US and China. Trade is an in indispensable component of human society and economic development. Looking back in history, from an oasis economy to a river economy, road and river economy, and now ocean economy, trade liberalized and facilitated societies.

Yet, the US is running against the trade liberalization. Even though the trade war can solve temporary issues, it will not be helpful with long-term developments in the future. Therefore, the ultimate solution for trade war is to persuade the US to abandon the trade protectionism, especially the policies toward high tariffs. At the same time, adopt a solution of mutual benefit; respect each other and cooperate while moving toward together with prosperity.

US President Donald Trump might be an outstanding businessman, whereas he is not destined to be a strategic partner with vision because he only focuses on immediate benefit regardless of long-term interests. Protectionism may be effective in solving issues presently, the country will keep crippled.

III: Big stick will be a trigger of international turmoil

Unilateral trade protectionism against the world carried out by US will lead to three consequences:

The painful lesson of trade protectionism and harsh tariffs that delayed the global economic development for twenty years after WWII, is still within people's recollection. If the US still implements protectionism against the world insistently, it is possible that world economy will decline.

Secondly, there will be a huge impact on global governance system. The US has benefited the most from globalization, otherwise, economic issues such as employment percentage, monetary crisis, outflow of multinational companies would have far more serious consequences without globalization. Conversely, the US is now attributing all the problems toward globalization, this is a misjudging of the situation. The global governance system which was established after WWII would be destroyed if the miscalculation sustained. China's consistent approach is to improve the global system but not changing it subversively. On the contrary, the US is now against people around the world, the globalization, and the international governance system by gradually withdrawing from the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership); exiting the nuclear dealwith Iran, leaving UNESCO, and introducing the trade war, etc. The decline of US economy will lead to further global recession, and the collapse of the global governance system.

Finally, a US economic recession is possible tolead to other countries' economical decline, even global instability, highly alerted is necessary in these fields.

IV: An alliance is beneficial for global development

According to statistics, the trade war has expanded to 15 countries, affecting 85 percent of world's population and 90 percent of trade. We should unite countries including the European Union, Canada, Mexico and even Japan, in this situation, to resist unilateral protectionism by the US.

This is necessary for the establishment of an alliance against the US. The banner of globalization, trade optimization as well as investment facilitation should be held high in order to promote the future development of the global economy.

Wei Jianguo is vice-chairman of the board at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges and a former vice-minister of commerce. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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