“They sense his increasing domestic weakness and see a chance to pile pressure on,” said Kerry Brown, a professor of Chinese politics at King’s College London. Still, Mr. Brown added that the criticism would probably be muted to avoid provoking a backlash in the United States. Mr. Trump has described the tariffs as necessary to reduce the United States’ trade deficit with China. But his efforts have rattled Chinese officials and prompted a series of retaliatory actions from Beijing, which fears slowing economic growth. Chinese news outlets, which are tightly controlled by the ruling Communist Party, often criticize the United States in general terms.

Source: New York Times August 22, 2018 12:36 UTC