Chinese leader Xi Jinping attends a bilateral meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez at Diaoyutai Guest House in Beijing on April 11, 2025. (Photo by AFP/Getty Images)
China's President Xi Jinping has called on the European Union to join Beijing in opposing the United States' "bullying" practices as Washington's controversial tariffs continue to shock global markets.
Speaking with visiting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Beijing on Friday, the Chinese leader said his nation was confident, self-reliant and “not afraid” of getting engaged in a trade war with America.
He said Beijing will never back down when the Chinese nation is faced with the "unreasonable" demands of the Trump administration.
However, he added, "There are no winners in a trade war, and going against the world will only lead to self-isolation.”
The comments come as US President Donald Trump temporarily froze many tariffs for 90 days but imposed 145 percent tariffs on Chinese goods on Thursday. Consequently, global financial markets plummeted on trade jitters among investors.
“For over 70 years, China’s development has relied on self-reliance and hard work — never on handouts from others, and it is not afraid of any unjust suppression,” Xi said.
“Regardless of how the external environment changes, China will remain confident, stay focused, and concentrate on managing its own affairs well,” he added.
Xi called on the Brussels leadership to join Beijing in resisting “unilateral bullying" by the Trump administration.
His comments to Sanchez, indicating Beijing's preference to expand cooperation with the EU, come amid escalating tensions with the United States.
Meanwhile, European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen told the Financial Times that it remained armed with a "wide range of countermeasures" if negotiations with Trump hit the skids.
"An example is you could put a levy on the advertising revenues of digital services," applying across the bloc, she said.
Legendary New York investor Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, said investors have been left with “an element of trauma or shock or fear” after all the global markets turmoil this week.
“It dramatically affected psychology and attitude about the United States’ reliability,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
Top adviser to Trump, Elon Musk, even expressed doubts about the tariff war, which he has said would drive up costs for Tesla, his electric automaker.
“I hope it is agreed that both Europe and the United States should move ideally in my view to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America,” Musk said in a video conference with Italian politicians.
On Sunday, Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro said that Musk “doesn’t understand” the situation. Musk fired back, calling Navarro a “moron”.
Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday that it's a "Great time to buy" stocks. Shortly after, the S&P 500 fell 3.5 percent as fears grew that the worsening trade war with China would crimp growth.
