Tariff Photo:VCG

 
The Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday that it will ignore the "meaningless number games," as China has noticed that some of its exports to the US are now subject to cumulative tariffs of up to 245 percent under various pretexts, and emphasized that such move has blatantly exposed how the US has instrumentalized and weaponized tariffs with utter irrationality.

The comment was made after a latest White House announcement claimed that China now faces tariffs of up to 245 percent on imports to the US.

Regarding the so-called 245 percent tariffs, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian on Wednesday has repeatedly reiterated China's solemn position on the tariff issue, saying that tariff and trade wars have no winner. China does not want to fight these wars but is not afraid of them.

A Chinese expert said that the so-called 245-percent tariff targeting China likely applies only to certain products and is composed of tariffs imposed at different times. The ongoing tariff exchange between China and the US shows that the US government is playing a numbers game, the expert said.

The 245-percent tariff term is buried in an announcement on Tuesday released by the White House, regarding US President Donald Trump having signed an executive order launching an investigation into the national security risks posed by US reliance on imported processed critical minerals and their derivative products.

The so-called 245-percent tariff hike targeting some products produced in China is a move that devolved into a meaningless numbers game, Gao Lingyun, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

China announced plans to raise the additional tariffs on products imported from the US to 125 percent, effective from Saturday, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council announced on Friday. The announcement followed the US move to raise the "reciprocal tariffs" on Chinese imports to 125 percent, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

The repeated US imposition of excessively high tariffs on China has degenerated into a "numbers game," which no longer has any practical economic significance. It only further exposes the US use of tariffs as a tool and weapon for bullying and coercion, turning it into a laughingstock. If the US continues its tariff "numbers game", China will ignore it, the Ministry of Commerce said on Friday.

Interestingly, while the US government was busy ramping up tariffs, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt drew online attention for a different reason: her wardrobe. 

Observant netizens noted that the polished outfits she wore on multiple consecutive days were all suspected "Made in China."

Zhang Zhisheng, the Chinese Consul-General in Denpasar, Indonesia, also took note of the incident and posted on X, saying, "Accusing China is business, buying China is life." Zhang added that the beautiful lace on the red outfit worn by Leavitt was identified by an employee of a Chinese company as their own product.

"While the spokesperson may publicly support the tariff policy, behind closed doors she might be the first to complain about how US tariffs have driven up clothing prices too quickly," a netizen joked on Sino Weibo.