Trade war has no winners, China’s vice premier warns, as Trump threatens tariffs

BEIJING — Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang warned there are “no winners” in a trade war, as the world’s second-largest economy faces the possibility of tariffs under the freshly-inaugurated administration of Donald Trump.

“Protectionism leads no where. [A trade war has no winners,” Ding said Tuesday, according to an official English translation. He was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The vice premier began his address largely by referencing Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech at Davos in 2017, which took place just days before Trump headed to the White House to begin his first term.

After his second inauguration on Monday, Trump said the U.S. could levy tariffs on Mexico and Canada as soon as February. As for China, the returning U.S. president indicated tariffs could be a way to pressure the country into forcing Beijing-based ByteDance to sell TikTok, whose future availability in the U.S. is now in question.

“If we wanted to make a deal with TikTok, and it was a good deal, and China wouldn’t approve it, then I think ultimately they’d approve it, because we’d put tariffs on China,” Trump said. “I’m not saying I would, but you certainly could do that.”

Ding, who said he was attending Davos for the second time, is one of China’s four vice premiers. China economy has struggled with lackluster consumption and a real estate slump. Despite this, the country’s GDP officially grew by 5% last year after a flurry of stimulus announcements starting in late September.

This breaking news story is being updated.