The United States consulate in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang will next week screen a film version of the Broadway musical Titanic, which it tells its WeChat followers is a “grand story of love and sacrifice on a legendary ship”. But consulate staff whose passions are stirred by the musical had better watch their step because if they fall in love with someone Chinese and act on it, they will have to sacrifice their job.
The US government has banned American government personnel in China, along with family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, the Associated Press reported last month.
Last week a Chinese friend told me that one of his friends had fallen victim to the new rule because an American diplomat they were dating had ended the relationship abruptly. After the diplomat explained the situation he deleted his profile on the dating site where they had met and blocked my friend’s friend on WeChat.
A blanket ban on fraternising with locals is common for soldiers during wartime and was sometimes applied to diplomats at the height of the cold war but it is highly unusual today. Its application to American government personnel in China was introduced before Donald Trump took office by former ambassador Nick Burns, who was appointed by Joe Biden. Relations between Beijing and Washington deteriorated fast during Trump’s first term but they failed to recover under Biden despite fitful attempts at engagement. The Pew Research Centre found last year that 81 per cent of US adults saw China unfavourably, including 43 per cent who hold a very unfavourable opinion.
Trump’s decision to impose a 125 per cent tariff on Chinese goods while pausing “reciprocal” tariffs for all other countries has escalated the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. With Chinese tariffs on US imports at 84 per cent, and due to rise to 125 per cent from Saturday, Beijing and Washington have made trade in many goods uneconomical.
While other governments responded to Trump’s initial tariff threats by offering concessions and in the president’s words “kissing my ass”, Beijing was uniquely defiant in the face of his threats. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Thursday posted on X: “We are Chinese. We are not afraid of provocations. We don’t back down.”
Her post was accompanied by a video of part of a speech by Mao Zedong in 1953 when China was at war with the US.
“As to how long this war will last, we are not the ones who can decide,” he says. “It used to depend on President Truman, and it will depend on President Eisenhower, or whoever becomes the next US president. It’s up to them. No matter how long this war is going to last we will never yield. We’ll fight until we completely triumph.”
The US market accounts for almost 15 per cent of China’s exports, too much to redirect towards domestic consumers who are already economically anxious and slow to spend. China’s other big export markets, including the European Union and the countries of southeast Asia, are also unwilling to accept the Chinese products that Americans can no longer afford to buy.
This complicates Xi Jinping’s prospects of capitalising on Trump’s capricious foreign policy by strengthening China’s relationships around the world. But there are signs that Beijing has learned some of the lessons from its disastrous period of Wolf Warrior diplomacy a few years ago and is taking more account of the interests of its interlocutors.
For five years or more Beijing reacted intemperately to every diplomatic slight, sank into extended sulks with everyone from Norway to Australia and generally threw its weight around. It was especially counterproductive with the EU, which saw its China policy move closer to that of the US.
Trump’s open contempt for the transatlantic relationship and his preference for Russia over Ukraine made some European leaders queasy even before the tariffs. But Europe will not be persuaded of Beijing’s bona fides as a fellow champion of the rules-based trading system without a more level playing field in their bilateral trade.
The two sides agreed this week to start consultations on minimum pricing for Chinese electric vehicles sold in the EU and on building more Chinese vehicles in Europe. Although China continues to support Russia economically and diplomatically, it has called for Europe to be given a central role in any peace negotiations over Ukraine and that issue may no longer be the sticking point it once was.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez this week called for the EU to change its stance towards China in the light of Trump’s tariff threats. If Beijing wants to persuade Europe that it is a more dependable ally than Washington it must first address legitimate EU concerns on trade and unilaterally lift the sanctions it has imposed on European lawmakers.
