How China Can Hit Back at Trump: Target US Firms, Turn to India, Africa

  • Arsenal includes sanctions, power to limit access to minerals
  • Prospect of trade conflict grew stronger with Trump’s election
Restrictions on critical minerals could cut the US off from materials needed to make advanced technologies.Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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China wields new powers as it confronts the prospect of another trade conflict with the US, expanding its retaliatory reach in recent years to include tools capable of wreaking havoc on global commerce and finance.

Six years after Donald Trump started the first trade war with China, the US president-elect has named a series of China hawks to his administration and threatened 60% tariffs on Chinese goods, a level that would decimate tradeBloomberg Terminal between the two countries. The dilemma for China now is that its sizable trade surplus with the US means any direct countermeasures may have limited impact.