As global markets tumble and tariffs soar, a Chennai-based financial planner offered a stark reality check. “Strange as it may sound, US needs China more than China needs US,” D Muthukrishnan wrote on X. “If China is going to lose one eye, US would lose both. Majority of the world would be partially blind too.”
His warning comes as the US-China trade war escalates to an unprecedented high.
Less than 48 hours after Beijing slapped a retaliatory 34% tariff on American goods, Donald Trump has responded with a sharper blow—announcing an additional 50% tariff on all Chinese imports. This pushes total US tariffs on Chinese goods to an all-time high of 84%, and when combined with the White House’s 10% global tariff, China now faces a 94% import levy into the United States.
Trump made the announcement at 11:30 a.m. US time (9 p.m. IST) via his social platform, Truth Social. Referring to China as a “tariff abuser,” he said:
“Yesterday, China issued retaliatory tariffs of 34 per cent, on top of their already record setting tariffs, non-monetary tariffs, illegal subsidization of companies, and massive long term currency manipulation, despite my warning that any country that retaliates against the US… will be immediately met with new and substantially higher tariffs.”
He then issued a final ultimatum:
“If China does not withdraw its 34 per cent increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose additional tariffs on China of 50 per cent, effective April 9th.”
The White House also confirmed that all trade negotiations with China will be halted, while talks with other nations—those that haven’t retaliated—will move forward.
“Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately.”
Global stock markets and oil prices have plunged over the last 72 hours, following Trump’s decision to impose reciprocal tariffs on all countries taxing US exports. “These are, as the name suggests, just reciprocal – which means we do to them, what they do to us,” he said during a previous briefing.
Before Trump’s latest escalation, Beijing had warned that such measures would trigger a “painful trade war” that would “not benefit anyone.”
