Trump’s trade war is cracking the West’s unity, former Chinese envoy says

Donald Trump’s aggressive trade policies have fractured Western unity, potentially reshaping the global order as allies consider alternatives, according to a veteran Chinese diplomat.

Wu Hailong, president of the semi-official China Public Diplomacy Association, said the US leader’s global tariff war had worsened US conflicts with its partners, shaking the foundation of transatlantic ties.

Addressing the Global Prosperity Summit in Hong Kong on Tuesday, Wu said the fault lines opening up in the relations between the United States and its Western allies amounted to the biggest shift in post-war international relations.

Those fault lines were in part created by Trump’s accusations that allies were exploiting US economic and military advantages, his pledges to annex Canada and buy Greenland, and his sidelining of Europe in talks with Russia over the Ukraine war.

They were compounded by tariffs announced on almost all trading partners in April. Those tariffs have since been suspended for 90 days, but US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that they could be reimposed if trading partners did not negotiate in “good faith”.

Wu said this could see US allies weighing fresh options.

  

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