Rachel Blevins reports on the escalating Tariff Wars 🌐🔥 as China strikes back with 125% counter-measures following Trump’s aggressive trade posturing.
While U.S. officials frame it as a “strong move,” Beijing’s response could spell economic blowback — not just for Washington, but for global markets. 📉
Is this a tantrum in policy form? Or a larger unraveling of U.S. influence in global trade?
🎯 Rachel breaks it all down — facts, context, and what the mainstream won’t say.
📢 Subscribe for truth-driven reporting.7
#RachelBlevins #TariffWars #ChinaResponse #TrumpTradeWar #USChinaTensions #TradePolicy #125PercentTariffs #GlobalTradeCrisis #TrumpVsChina #USPolitics #ChinaStrikesBack #EconomicRetaliation #GeopoliticalNews #MarketImpact #AlternativeMedia #RealNews #TradeWar2025 #TariffBacklash #AmericanEconomy #GlobalShift
While U.S. officials frame it as a “strong move,” Beijing’s response could spell economic blowback — not just for Washington, but for global markets. 📉
Is this a tantrum in policy form? Or a larger unraveling of U.S. influence in global trade?
🎯 Rachel breaks it all down — facts, context, and what the mainstream won’t say.
📢 Subscribe for truth-driven reporting.7
#RachelBlevins #TariffWars #ChinaResponse #TrumpTradeWar #USChinaTensions #TradePolicy #125PercentTariffs #GlobalTradeCrisis #TrumpVsChina #USPolitics #ChinaStrikesBack #EconomicRetaliation #GeopoliticalNews #MarketImpact #AlternativeMedia #RealNews #TradeWar2025 #TariffBacklash #AmericanEconomy #GlobalShift
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NewsTranscript
00:00It is April 11, 2025, and tensions are soaring as the ongoing trade war between the United States
00:08and China is hitting new heights as you have both countries now imposing tariffs against each other
00:13that are soaring over 100%. It seems as though Trump thinks that he is going to get Beijing to
00:20back down, and as it stands right now, we are seeing no signs that that is going to happen.
00:26So we'll be taking a look in this video at where things stand and what it means for the overall
00:32tensions between the U.S. and China, as we've also been covering the fact that the U.S. is now openly
00:38preparing for war against China. Is this how it starts? Is the U.S. going to be making the exact
00:45same mistakes that they did with Russia and with their targeting campaign against Russia? Are they
00:51going to be doing a similar thing when it comes to China? We'll be discussing all of that and more
00:56here in today's video, but before we do, I just wanted to make a quick note because I knew that
01:01I've gotten a few comments and messages asking for Jack's updates. He's not here with me in my arm at
01:07the moment, but he is here. He's doing good. He had surgery this week. That's why he hasn't been in any
01:14videos lately. I will show a picture of him. He's in the cone of shame at the moment, which he is
01:20definitely not a fan of, but he's doing good. He's hanging in there, and he could also use your
01:26prayers. He is 12 years old, and it's just anyone who has had a dog or who has pets, you know that
01:33when your pets start to get older, it's just hard, and they run into more and more health issues.
01:40Luckily, he's very healthy overall. He has a great quality of life, and we're kind of doing everything
01:46that we can to try to extend that for as long as we can and to get as much time with him as we can.
01:51So I'm hoping that he'll be back here soon once he gets freed from the cone of shame, then he can come
01:57join me again in my videos and say hi to all of y'all. But thank you, as always, for all of your
02:03kind words and messages. I always appreciate it, and I'm happy to have you all here. We are
02:08so close to 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. I don't even think that I can believe it. I'm just
02:16like, I am so excited and so anxious, and so I'm grateful for all of y'all who are chiming in. If
02:23you are watching on YouTube, make sure that you're subscribed. And without further ado, let's get into
02:28today's video. I know that there has been a lot of madness going on this week. I do want to note I am
02:34looking at this from more of a foreign policy angle. So obviously there's been a lot of financial
02:39news, a lot of news with the tariffs. I'm more so looking at this when it comes to the angle of,
02:44okay, what does this mean for relations between the U.S. and China? I am working on trying to get
02:50interviews with some experts hopefully coming up next week that we can delve more into the economic
02:56side of this, right, and kind of what does that mean in the areas that are beyond just my expertise
03:02and what I'm able to deliver to you here. So just to note that that is coming up. So for now,
03:07I'm going to be looking at this from the angle of the tensions between the U.S. and China. And just
03:12to kind of give you a visual here. As this data that was compiled by the Wall Street Journal notes,
03:18in 2024, there was $582.4 billion worth of trade between the U.S. and China, but only $143.5 billion
03:30of that trade was exports from the U.S., creating a $295.4 billion trade deficit. And the U.S. also has
03:40significant trade deficits with Canada, Mexico, and the EU. So Trump sees this trade deficit and
03:47he decides that the way to address it is to put a tariff or a tax on the imports that are coming
03:53into the U.S. from these countries. So in the instance of China, we're now talking about insane
03:59imports on the products coming in as a punishment for the fact that China is not buying enough from
04:07the U.S., I guess, right? But yet the punishment is not on China. The punishment is on American
04:13companies and the cost of that is then passed down to American consumers. So the average American,
04:20not the wealthy Americans who attended Trump's inauguration or were chilling in the White House
04:25with him this week. No, the guys like you and I, the average American consumers, we are the ones who
04:32end up paying the price for these tariffs. It's not China, right? That does not have the impact on China
04:38that Trump thinks it does, but it does have a major impact on the American consumer. And Trump has made
04:45this into a game, right? It's not just straight down the line tariffs. Oh no, it's a game of who
04:51can kiss up to him the most because he announces all of these tariffs on dozens of countries around
04:56the world. And then he sits back and he waits and he sees who is going to go out of their way to try
05:03to reason with him, to try to work with him, to try to beg him to get them to lower the tariffs.
05:08And China has not done that, right? Every single time that Trump has announced tariffs on China,
05:14China has reciprocated. And they've included other additional measures that go beyond just
05:20these tariffs that they are putting on the U.S. in response to what Trump has announced against
05:25China. And obviously none of us are in Trump's mind. We don't know what he's thinking, but it
05:30really seems as though he thinks that he's going to force Beijing to back down. And that's not
05:36happening. In fact, the exact opposite is happening because China came out and on Friday announced
05:42that they were raising tariffs on the products imported to China from the U.S. up from, they were
05:49at 84% as of this week. Beijing is now raising them up to 125%. And the Chinese finance ministry said
05:58in a statement, even if the U.S. continues to impose higher tariffs, it will no longer make economic
06:04sense and will become a joke in the history of world economy. They went on to say, with tariff
06:11rates at the current level, there is no longer a market for U.S. goods imported into China. If the
06:17U.S. government continues to increase the tariffs on China, Beijing will ignore. So this is a way for
06:24China to say, look, we don't need your products, right? They're saying we're putting 125% tariffs on
06:31your products, making it so that they are no longer competitive in the Chinese economy. But I guess
06:37it's their way of saying, we don't need you as much as you need us. And they're trying to make that
06:44point clear to Trump. But of course, Trump is making it look like he would refuse to back down. He, and
06:50clearly China is saying they're not going to back down. So where does this go from here? Because Trump has
06:56also raised tariffs on China up to 145%. If you include the 125%, he mentioned in a ranting social
07:06media post in which he accused Beijing of showing a lack of respect to the world's markets. But there's
07:12also the 20% tariff on China for what the U.S. has described as its role in fentanyl production. In
07:19other words, Trump just put a 145% tariff on the nearly $440 billion worth of goods that the U.S.
07:29imports from China every single year. Not only is that not sustainable, but it's incredibly harmful
07:35for American companies and ultimately for the American consumer. And it really makes you wonder
07:42what the overall goal is here. Because the U.S. seems to be making the exact same mistakes that they made
07:48when they were dealing with Russia just a few years ago. But we go back to 2014, to the U.S.
07:54actively being involved in the overthrow of the democratically elected government in Ukraine.
08:00Well, from that point forward, when the U.S. started imposing sanctions on Russia over the fact
08:06that Crimea voted to return to Russia and the U.S. could not have it, they could not stand with it,
08:12Russia started working to sanction-proof their economy, right? They realized the U.S. is
08:18not a stable actor here. How do we work with other countries around the world? How do we do business
08:23with other nations? Well, China has done its own version of that, right? You look back to
08:29the first term of the Trump administration, the trade war that existed then that obviously is still
08:35going on to this day. Well, China said, okay, how do we rely less and less on the U.S.? Now, obviously,
08:42if you're talking about this massive amount of trade, right, half a trillion dollars in trade
08:48every single year, that's still a reliance between the U.S. and China on each other. That's not going
08:53to go anywhere overnight. But the point is that China woke up to the hard truth, which Russia had
09:00to wake up to, which is that the U.S. is actively trying to harm them. And it is willing to harm itself
09:08in the process in order to try to inflict pain and to inflict lasting damage on countries like Russia
09:17and China. And there were two things that really stuck out to me, actually, from the Associated Press
09:22report on this entire situation. The first of which was that they quoted the director of the China
09:29program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center, who noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping
09:35will not be forced into a call, and that only once in recent history has a Chinese leader phone the United
09:43States without invitation after the 9-11 terrorist attacks. The second of which was that since Trump
09:51imposed his first round of tariffs on China in 2018, Beijing's leaders had developed a toolkit of tariffs,
09:59import curbs, export controls, sanctions, regulatory reviews, and measures to limit companies from doing
10:07business in China. All are designed to inflict pain on the U.S. economy and businesses in response to any
10:14trade move by the U.S. government. So this idea that China has just been sitting around, right, waiting
10:21for Trump to get to a second term and then hoping that they can reason with him and negotiate with him
10:26and get him to lower the tariffs. That simply is not true. They are in a position right now where we
10:32have seen no signs that they are willing to back down, and Trump needs to be prepared for that. But
10:39beyond that, we also have to remember that right now the U.S. with all of these tariffs, because it's not
10:45just on China, Trump's announcing tariffs on the entire world with this bizarre calculated formula that he
10:52thinks is going to take care of the trade deficit by, again, putting the burden on the American consumer.
10:57Because of that, he's telling all of these other countries around the world that, hey, guess what?
11:03You should go work with China because the U.S. is not a stable actor. And now, as a result of that,
11:09you had reports this week noting that finance and central bank officials from China, Japan, South Korea,
11:16and other regional countries met and discussed the impact of U.S. tariffs on the global and regional
11:23macroeconomic situation. Now, as a reminder, not only are South Korea and Japan not exactly friends
11:30with China, oh, but they're also the two countries that the U.S. has been courting and pouring money into
11:37getting them to the point where they are prepared to be the U.S. proxy bases for active war with China.
11:45So the fact that they're having discussions with Chinese officials talking about how do we respond
11:51to these tariffs, right? How are we going to proceed? That's really major. That should be a
11:56massive wake-up call to the U.S. A wake-up call that right now the Trump administration is making
12:02China look more reliable than ever. And they're making the U.S. look as if it is an unstable ally,
12:10right? You have Trump over here announcing tariffs on dozens of countries, then announcing a 90-day
12:15pause, and then announcing 145% tariffs on China. It's like, and then claiming that China can't
12:21retaliate. Like, I'm sorry, who are you to tell not just another country, another superpower what
12:28they are allowed to do when it comes to the tariffs that they place on your country? Like, it's just
12:33mind-boggling to watch the way that Trump thinks that he can, or he seems to think that he can
12:39wheel and deal and force everyone else to do his will, while at the same time, it's very clear
12:45the U.S. is preparing for some type of a proxy war or even a further direct war against China. They are
12:54preparing and they are openly targeting China in the exact same way that they have been targeting Russia.
12:59The only irony of the latest actions is that it could also stand to hurt the U.S. weapons industry.
13:05As you had Politico noting earlier this month that Trump's plan could muddle global supply chains that
13:12the Pentagon has spent decades creating, making American weapons more expensive, and complicate
13:19international efforts to counter China. These programs include the F-35 fighter plane, which is flown by
13:2620 nations in a unique partnership designed to give participating countries manufacturing work,
13:33along with important rocket and air defense projects with Norway and Israel. Now, unfortunately, I don't
13:40think that the military industrial complex here in this country is going to be harmed too much at the
13:45end of the day, because you already have reports that Trump is, you know, talking about exemptions from
13:51tariffs from certain countries or certain industries. So I have a feeling he's going to make sure that they
13:58end up being just fine right now. It's just kind of the shock and awe of Trump figuring out that he can
14:04put tariffs on whoever he wants and do what he wants and essentially acting like a king. And it is such
14:11a slap in the face to the not just average American, right? The people here in this country, the people who
14:18take their hard earned money, they put it into the stock market, they've had significant losses
14:22this week with all of these actions that have been taken by Trump. And then you have Trump getting on
14:28social media and declaring that this is a great time to buy after he suspended the tariffs to most countries
14:35for 90 days, and then welcoming his billionaire buddies to the Oval Office and bragging about how much money each
14:44one of them is making. But it's important to remember here that what Trump is doing right now is not
14:49actually all that unique for the United States and for a US president. Every single one of them,
14:55at least in recent history, that's what I'm speaking to, has furthered the divide between the rich and the
15:02poor. The rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer. And that's exactly what we're seeing
15:08happening right now, right? Trump is openly courting all of these billionaires. We saw it with all of the
15:13tech CEOs attending his inauguration. The only difference between Trump and the presidents
15:18that have come before him is that he's not hiding it, right? It's right there out in the open. He's
15:24making it known that with all of these different decisions that he's making with this, oh, we're
15:30going to impose tariffs and we're going to hold tariffs. He's making the billionaires in this country
15:35even richer. Meanwhile, the average Americans are the ones being stuck with the cost of it all,
15:41being stuck having to pay higher prices for these imported products. And it's one thing to bring up
15:47the trade deficit, right? To bring up these problems and to say, hey, we're looking at the US and it seems
15:52like we import a hell of a lot more than we're exporting right now. And it's like, yeah, we can
15:57have a conversation about that and we can have a conversation about what some solutions could be.
16:03But we have to remember that Trump is calling out the problems, but the quote unquote solutions that he's
16:09coming up with are not ones that are actually helping the American consumer. They are ones that
16:15are furthering to make the rich rich, to make the poor poor, and to keep us in this position where not
16:22only is the United States, we can claim that they're quote unquote reducing their reliance on China, but
16:29what's really happening is that the US is further isolating itself from the rest of the world. The rest of
16:35the world is working together, right? China and South Korea and Japan are looking at ways that they
16:40can work together to respond to US tariffs. And because of that, China and Russia are working
16:47together because they've been targeted by the US, right? This growing multipolar world is looking at
16:53all of the ways that they can work together to counter the US. So the US is actively isolating itself.
16:59And it's not because we're creating some magical island where we are completely self-sufficient and
17:05we manufacture everything that we need and we don't need to work with anyone else. No, it is at the
17:10expense of the American people. It's playing out right before our eyes. And at the end of the day,
17:17that's something everyone should be talking about. If anything in this video resonated with you,
17:23be sure to like it, share it with your friends, leave a comment, and as always, don't forget to subscribe.
17:29And if you want to keep up with all of my work, make sure that you're subscribed to my page on
17:33Substack. That's rachelblevins.substack.com. That's where you'll find ad-free videos and new weekly
17:40episodes of my exclusive series for paid subscribers called Sanctioned. You can also check out Sanctioned
17:46over on my page on Patreon. That's patreon.com slash rachelblevins. As always, thank y'all so much for
17:53all of your support, and I'll see you next time.