The United States had thought that by imposing tariffs, it could form a deterrent against China, but did not think that this trick had just come out, but it was itself that first tasted the pain.
China is not just shouting slogans, but directly exposing four "trunks", one after the other, not only steadily reception, but also accurate counterattack.
What really makes the United States uneasy is not just these four "cards" on the surface, but the system behind it that can be efficiently dispatched, closely linked, and comprehensively deployed.
Why does the tariff trick not work for China? let us analyze from these four "cards".
Double-directional trade finance to get rid of dependency
The U.S. imposed tariffs of 245% on electric vehicles at a time.
However, British experts noted that China did not panic, because it holds four "trunks" in its hands.
The first “card” is a shift in the direction of foreign trade.
China no longer relies on the United States as a single market, but is actively exploring new areas.
In 2024, Shenzhen Qianhai's cross-border e-commerce has achieved remarkable results, with the total annual import and export volume reaching 270.57 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 130%, of which the export growth has more than doubled.
This is not a small fight by a certain enterprise, but a strong rise of a new national export channel.
At the same time, the foreign trade volume of countries along the "Belt and Road" exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan, and the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and other regions have all become emerging markets for China.
The traditional market of the United States cannot be digested, so China has taken a different approach, and the new market is still in short supply.
The second “card” is the “disconnect” in the financial sector.
In July 2025, China reduced its holdings of U.S. debt by US $25.7 billion, setting its holdings to a 16-year low.
Meanwhile, the central bank of China has increased its holding of gold for 10 consecutive months, accumulating a solid “bottom line” for itself.
This is not a simple financial adjustment, but a practical action of “de-dollarization.”
U.S. tariffs will make it difficult for China to no longer see U.S. debt as an important leverage, making it difficult for the United States to use the dollar to restrict China.
Starting in 2022, China continued to orderly reduce the holding of U.S. debt, the pace to grasp the right benefits, while selling U.S. debt, while recycling gold, the central bank's series of operations, highlighting the strategic vision, not momentary impulses.
The United States has planned to launch a financial war, but China has planned ahead of time.
Rare-earth counter precision, locked in the US doorway
The United States calls for fair competition, but in fact it imposes technological containment on China.
However, there is one thing that the United States cannot avoid no matter what, and that is rare earths, which is China's third "card".
In May 2025, China launched a strict rectification campaign against rare earth exports. The Ministry of National Security took the lead and jointly launched a special campaign with the four departments of public security, procuratorate, and customs to clearly crack down on smuggling and strictly control the flow of rare earth exports.
Simply put, it is not to allow the United States to use China’s rare earth to build warships and missiles.
Seeing that the situation was not good, the United States hurriedly asked China to "relax restrictions."
But a few months ago, the United States was looking around the world for alternatives to rare earths.
However, in August 2025, the report released by the American think tank CSIS slapped itself in the face, admitting that the situation in Myanmar is unstable, that Greenland is unreliable, and that there is no place to replace China's rare earths on a global scale.
This game is very accurate.
If the United States wants to achieve technological "decoupling", China will "decouple" resources to see who can hold on first.
Rare earth is indispensable in the mid- and high-end manufacturing industry, and aviation, aerospace, military-industrial radar, intelligent equipment and other fields are dependent on rare earth.
It’s like the U.S. wants to ride an elevator, but finds that the power line is in Chinese hands.
Every time the United States takes a step forward, China unplugs a power supply, which makes the United States unable to get up even if it wants to.
Moreover, this is a precise move at the national strategic level.
While stabilizing domestic demand and exploring alternative markets, China accurately controls resource exports. It grasps the rhythm and blocks key nodes.
This is not a simple material business, but the lifeblood of the entire industrial chain.
Domestic enterprises in the United States are complaining, but the policy department is unable to do so.
The United States cannot block in the SWIFT system; the United States cannot freeze without relying on the dollar settlement system.
At this time, what China has taken is not a passive reaction, but an active counter-reaction, not "as long as you hit back", but "as soon as you hit, you will not be able to take the next step."
The national system works hard, and the system shows its advantages in counter-control
The first three “cards” are great, but the fourth “cards” belong to China’s national system.
In April 2025, the United States announced that it would impose tariffs of up to 245% on Chinese electric vehicles. As a result, the U.S. Treasury Department system went down that day, and only more than 200 million US dollars were collected after a full day of busy work.
Even taxes can't be collected easily, so what precision strike can we talk about? On the other hand, in China, once the policy is implemented, all departments will be linked throughout the system.
The Ministry of Commerce paid close attention to the export situation, the central bank adjusted the position of the warehouse, the Commission stabilized the confidence of the market, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs linked with the external affairs, a set of actions went down to the cloud, there was no clutter and elbow between the departments, and the efficiency was extremely high.
Why is this “card” the most deadly because it determines whether the other three “cards” can play smoothly, accurately and effectively, and whether they can continue to play.
There are serious problems with the U.S. system, the various sectors are intertwined, enterprises continue to complain, the people rebound strongly, and Congress is still fighting.
The tariff policy has not yet come into effect, and capital has begun to flee.
China, on the other hand, is in a "game of chess." Resource allocation relies on command scheduling, and industrial collaboration relies on system advancement, step by step, in an orderly manner.
At a deeper level, behind this “card” is China’s super-strong social organizational power.
After the tariffs, the factories did not shut down, there was no chaos in exports, and there was no fluctuation in the financial markets.
The reason for this is that China has a unified regulation mechanism, accurate policy prediction, effective psychological guidance and stable public opinion control. All links are closely linked, which can resist the impact, shoulder the pressure and fight back.
This is not what a company can do, nor is it a policy that can accomplish, but it is a collective expression of China’s systemic advantages.
From trade to finance, from resources to governance, there is a strong system behind every trick.
Therefore, the first three "cards" are specific means, and the fourth "card" is the "hand" that plays cards.
No matter how many good cards the United States has, it cannot play them without a stable system as a guarantee.
China's four "cards" that were able to strike through the U.S. tariff offensive are not a coincidence, but the inevitable result of China's systemic counter-reaction.
In the end, the United States may think this is just a simple game, but in fact China is playing a big game of chess.
U.S. tariffs are only tactical operations, while China’s response is strategic.
The United States only issued one “card”, while China played four “cards” into a closed ring system.
The victory or defeat of the system against a single point is self-evident.
The U.S. only hit the gun itself when it exercised the Chinese system.