Will Trump Come Between Apple and Their Chinese Customers?

It appears that China is ready to strike at the heart of America’s tech industry should the Trump administration go through with its threats to impose tariffs on Chinese goods and declare China a currency manipulator. Throughout the campaign Trump promised to reign China in and play hard ball. Well, it sounds like China is ready to do the same. The Chinese government recently made it clear that if the U.S. were to begin slapping tariffs on Chinese goods, it would heavily tax Apple’s iPhones being sold in China. It also noted that it would not stop there. It would retaliate further by:

“China will take a tit-for-tat approach then,” it added. “A batch of Boeing orders will be replaced by Airbus. US auto and iPhone sales in China will suffer a setback, and US soybean and maize imports will be halted. China can also limit the number of Chinese students studying in the US. Trump, as a shrewd businessman, will not be so naïve.”

China does not believe that the U.S. would risk breaking the U.S. economy’s expansion streak under Obama and begin a potentially damaging trade war with them. Instead, it maintains that the best course of action is to continue with the status quo set under Obama and past administrations. Only time will tell if Trump is really the negotiator and adversary he claims to be or if he will be once again smacked down like he was during the debates. In the end, he may do what he always has which is blame others for his failures and count on his disciples to warp facts into conspiracies explaining his failures.