Since the US first decided to impose tarrifs on US$ 34 billion worth of Chinese exports on 6 July, the CCP's official newspaper published 7 commentaries on the 'Trade War'. The first commentary stated that “American trade bullying incorporating rude and unreasonable acts actually has disastrous consequences that harm the interests of Chinese and American companies and people, seriously threatens global free trade and the multilateral system, and impedes the advancement of the world economy’s recovery”; the second claimed that “the reasons for the daily worsening of America’s rash trade disease (贸易盲动症) are complicated, but one thing is evident. That is: some people openly ignore the overwhelmingly obvious truth that a ‘trade war is a double-edged sword.’” It added “American companies are worried,” “the American people are anxious,” and “American farmers are quitting” as a result of the Trump administration’s actions; the third commentary argued that “America’s ‘zero-sum theory of trade,’ violation of rules, and going against trends not only attacks China-US trade cooperation but also brings great uncertainty to the entire world economy” and noted that “The history of international trade has repeatedly proven unilateral protectionism is a zero-sum game and whoever plays it will have bad luck.”; the fourth focused on “America’s ‘theory of trade imbalance’” and maintained that “by changing direction from advocating ‘free trade’ to rattling on about so-called ‘fair trade,’ the US only has one aim. That is implementing ‘America First’ and having every country of the world pay the bill for US global hegemony.”; the fifth commentary contended that a trade war “brings the danger of making the normal world trade structure slip into the ‘Cold War trap’ of trade protectionism and unilateralism” but ultimately concluded that “Using protectionism to drag the world into a ‘Cold War trap’ is nothing more than some people’s wishful thinking (一厢情愿)” since “any rational person would be unwilling to return to that painful to recall period.”; the sixth responded to the Trump administration’s 10 July threat to impose tariffs on an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese exports, declaring “the White House’s trade policy is completely irrational and its bullying has accelerated and escalated to the point of shocking the people of the world” and vowing to work with the international community to “jointly defend the rules of free trade and the multilateral trade system and fight back against US trade bullying.”; and the seventh commentary noted the US trade actions impact on the world economy, American people, and China’s poor before proclaiming that “Whether in terms of morality or international rules, the US does not have the right to make a ‘recessionary trap’ for the world.”

(Comment: An analytical paragraph in 'National Affairs' on July 23 summarised that on July 6, the Trump Administration imposed US$34 billion per year in punitive tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States, with US$16 billion more to come. Four days later, after China retaliated in kind, Trump ordered officials to prepare tariff hikes on a further US$200 billion of Chinese exports. All this is in addition to his earlier hikes on imports of steel and aluminium from virtually anywhere — and his even earlier tariffs on (mainly Chinese) solar panels and (mainly Korean) washing machines. It said the United States says its actions are intended to redress its merchandise trade deficit of US$370 billion with China and Hong Kong, and to retaliate for various alleged Chinese actions, including the widespread theft of US intellectual property, hidden state subsidies for Chinese manufacturers, and a services sector that remains largely closed to foreign firms despite repeated promises to open it up.)