(Original title: ¡°Good resistance? other countries may be covertly cheering for China¡±)

The Network of Observers.

"Just like boxers speak malicious words to each other before the championship match, the United States and China are choking at each other." On October 20th, local time, Gideon Rachman, a columnist of the Financial Times, published an article as a metaphor, saying that the plot of this trade game may be developing in the opposite direction predicted by US Treasury Secretary Bescent.

Last week (15th), Bescent threatened that China's comprehensive control of rare earth exports was equivalent to "confronting the world" and would force the United States and other countries to "decouple" from China. But in Rahman's view, this is not the case. He wrote that Beijing has defined the Trump administration's threat to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese goods as a typical "double standard". In April this year, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning posted on the social platform "X", saying, "We are Chinese. We are not afraid of provocation. We will not back down," accompanied by a video of Chairman Mao's speech that year.

Map of negotiation site

However, Rahman noted that despite a tough gesture, both sides are also preparing for negotiations.Besent plans to meet with Chinese officials this week, and there are clear signs that U.S. President Trump wants to reach an agreement, the latter previously said that a 100% tariff is unsustainable.

According to Rahman, the U.S. urge to reach a deal may reflect its gradual realization that if the two sides really start fighting, China is more likely to knock them to the ground.

Rachman said that when Trump launched the trade war, the initial assumption was that the U.S. imports from China far exceeded exports, so the U.S. had all the keys. But the reality is that for some key commodities, China is the absolute dominant supplier, such as rare earth and critical minerals.

If China's import controls on rare earths take effect as scheduled in December, it won't be long before some U.S. production lines stall, he said.

Rahman further pointed out that in order to fight the United States, China must restrict exports to the world, otherwise the United States may purchase the products it needs through third parties.Besent predicts that the rest of the world will unite in support of the United States, which Rahman thinks is questionable.Because the United States has imposed tariffs on both allies and rivals, it has lost a lot of goodwill, Trump¡¯s trade policy is widespread, and the rest of the world may shyly cheer for China.

Data map of US Treasury Secretary Basent's speech

In Rahman's eyes, rare earths are currently China's most powerful weapon, but if the trade war escalates further, China can use other bargaining chips. Citing an analysis, he said that China is the sole supplier of key chemicals in widely used drugs, including antibiotics and drugs for heart disease, cancer and allergy treatments. The study found that nearly 700 drugs used in the United States rely entirely on raw materials produced in China.

He said that with the escalating geopolitical and trade tensions between China and the United States, both sides are looking for bargaining chips that can exert pressure, but so far, the search of the United States has achieved little effect.

The United States is trying to ensure that it stays ahead of the race to develop artificial intelligence. However, export controls have failed to prevent the rise of DeepSeek, which has demonstrated its strong strength to compete with leading companies such as OpenAI in the United States.

However, Rahman also pointed out that even a "victory" trade war will have an impact on China.China and the United States are the two major heavyweight players in the global economy, and when two boxers face up on the booth, although one side will always be declared winner on the same day, often, two boxers will be injured.

In response to the key issues in the current trade dispute, the spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce of China reiterated that the export control measures for rare earth and other related objects are the legitimate approach of the Chinese government to improve its own export control system in accordance with laws and regulations.

On the other hand, the United States has long generalized national security, abused export controls, and adopted discriminatory practices against China. Especially since the China-US Economic and Trade Talks in Madrid, the United States has continued to introduce a series of new restrictions on China, which has seriously damaged China's interests and seriously damaged the atmosphere of the economic and trade talks between the two sides. China firmly opposes this.

Spokesman hit the floor: China's position on tariff wars and trade wars is consistent. Fight and accompany to the end; Talk, the door is open. The United States cannot talk while threatening to introduce new restrictive measures. This is not the right way to get along with China.

Chinese flag and American flag data map