NEWS ANALYSIS: China can organise a boycott against the US ‘very quickly’, analyst warns
But one thing that may cause Xi Jinping to hold back from a full-scale attack on US firms is concern about the effect it would have on the domestic economy
Hong Kong/Beijing— China does not import enough from the US to be able to match Donald Trump’s tariff threats dollar for dollar. Instead, President Xi Jinping can have US companies doing business there squeezed in a multitude of other ways. With companies from Apple to Walmart and General Motors all operating in China and looking to expand, that gives Xi a way to retaliate. Those penalties could include customs delays, tax audits and increased regulatory scrutiny. The total amount of US goods exported to China only amounted to $130bn in 2017, meaning Trump’s potential tariffs on $250bn or more of Chinese imports cannot be matched, at least directly. But if you measure both exports and sales of US companies inside China, the US has a surplus of $20bn with China, according to Deutsche Bank. Pressuring companies through bureaucratic means "is a practice that the Chinese have used for a long time, and our companies are on guard," William Zarit, chairman of the American Chamber of Commer...
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