Censored! The Chinese Communist Party Restricts Discussion on Trump’s ‘104%’ Tariff

Illustration: A media professional notes that these "special operations" are essentially designed to instill a sense of fear, leading to self-censorship. (Photo by Patrick Lux/Getty Images)

[People News] The announcement that the United States will impose a 104% tariff on Chinese goods is facing censorship from the Chinese Communist government.

Radio Free Asia reports that when users search for keywords like #The United States has raised import tariffs on Chinese goods to 104%# on Weibo, they receive an error message stating, 'Sorry, this topic content is not displayed.'

The New York Times notes that as the China-U.S. trade war escalates, the Chinese Communist Party has started to control discourse and influence public opinion on social media platforms. State-run CCTV has launched popular hashtags such as 'While the U.S. is waging a trade war, it is also asking for eggs' and 'China does not provoke trouble but is not afraid of it.' Additionally, Weibo has restricted discussions on related topics to focus on mocking the U.S. or praising China’s strengths, clearly downplaying the details of Trump’s new tariff measures.

The New York Times also highlights that it remains unclear whether other, more negative posts have been censored. Many posts mentioning the 104% tariff are still visible, but they generally convey confidence in China’s outlook in the trade war.

Zhuang Jiaying, a political scholar at the National University of Singapore, told The New York Times that the Chinese Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping may not have developed a strategy to respond to the new U.S. tariffs yet, and are therefore attempting to control public opinion and shift blame towards the U.S. and Trump.

The report also highlighted that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has yet to issue a response from its leaders regarding the new tariffs. However, on April 9, the authorities released Xi Jinping's first public speech since the latest escalation of the trade war. The statement indicated that on Tuesday and Wednesday, Xi Jinping convened a central peripheral work meeting in Beijing with members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau. The meeting underscored the importance of building a community of shared destiny with neighboring countries and emphasized the need to 'construct a high-level interconnected network and strengthen cooperation in industrial and supply chains' to tackle various risks and challenges.

The report pointed out that these comments align with the recent narrative from the CCP state media regarding the trade war, which suggests that while the United States may be unpredictable, China is a more trustworthy partner for cooperation. Nevertheless, neighboring countries have expressed concerns that China's excessive exports could negatively impact their own industries. Additionally, the CCP is involved in territorial disputes with several neighboring countries.