worth of US imports on August
23.
“Trump’s action will not
help realize his ‘America First’
policy as pressure exerted by
tariffs has already penetrated
the US consumption market,”
said Gao Lingyun, a research
fellow at the Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences in Beijing.
If American importers, who
have to pay most of the addtion-
al levies, cannot digest the tariff
burden, they will pass the pres-
sure to downstream industries
and US consumers, who will
finally pay the bill, Gao noted.
From July 2018 to the end
of August 2019, the US bore
around 70 percent of the im-
pact from tit-for-tat tariffs,
while China shouldered the re-
maining 30 percent, Gao said.
A Chinese doctorate candi-
date in Buffalo, who only gave
his surname as Liu, told the
Global Times on Sunday “The
retail price of beef in the local
supermarket rose by nearly 20
percent since July.”
The price hike forced some
local consumers to consider al-
ternatives, he said.
The price of eggs and milk
rose by $1 during recent months
in local marts in Minneapolis, acollege student who only gave
her name as “Yvonne” told the
Global Times.
She said that farmers in
Minnesota were hit hard by
tariffs, with more than 1,
cattle farms shut down and the
local American ginseng indus-
try seeing sales decline 30 per-
cent by 2019.
Tariffs will bring around $
trillion losses to the US econ-
omy in the coming 10 years,
China’s Commerce Ministry
said on June 27, citing US in-
dustries.
American consumers will
spend $4.4 billion more on
clothes, $2.5 billion more on
shoes, $3.7 billion more on toys
and $1.6 billion more on house
ware each year, the ministry
said.No compromise
China’s trade war stance
is firm, Huo Jianguo, a vice
chairman of the China Society
for World Trade Organization
Studies, told the Global Times.
China will not give in or
compromise easily, he said.
China has more retaliatory tools
with more scope for tariffs on
American imports compared to
the US that is likely to levy a tax
on almost all Chinese goods by
December 15, experts said.On August 23, the Chinese
government hit back at US
tariffs by announcing it would
impose additional tariffs of 10
percent and 5 percent on $
billion of US products. The first
batch of tariffs took effect on
September 1 and the second on
December 15.
“Other retaliation measures,
such as China’s unreliable
entity list that is being drawn
up, is likely to be released at a
proper time during progress of
bilateral trade talks in the near
future,” Gao said.
But Chinese experts took a
dim view on the possibility that
both sides could reach a trade
deal in a short period of time as
they said the US had not shown
a sincere attitude toward ad-
dressing problems.
In their view, Washington
was continuing to adopt maxi-
mum pressure tactics against
China despite trade talks being
scheduled later in September.
But according to Huo, the
US should not dawdle about
signing agreements with China
as Trump faces fresh challeng-
es such as the sliding US econ-
omy and his own reelection.thus making it difficult for the
police to separate a protester
from an ordinary passer-by.
And when the police enforced
the law, the rioters shouted as-
saulting words like “gangster
police” “fight against police bru-
tality”, playing a fake scenario
about ordinary Hongkongers
hate police for their excessive
use of force.
Hong Kong police said at
Sunday’s press conference
that they arrested 63 protest-
ers, aged between 13 and 36, at
Mong Kok and Prince Edward
MTR stations on Saturday and
confiscated explosives and
weapons from some of those
arrested for illegal assembly.
Acting Senior Superinten-
dent Tsui Suk-yee of Kowloon
West Regional told media that
Hong Kong police strongly con-
demned criminal actions and
may seek authorities to pros-
ecute some of the arrested after
receiving relevant legal advice.
Tsui said that 54 of the 63
protesters were male Chinese
and nine were female Chinese.
Two Molotov cocktails and two
lighters were found in the per-
sonal belongings of a 13-year-
old protester. Police have found
Molotov cocktails, gas masks,
laser guns, slingshots, steel
balls, helmets and umbrellas,
Tsui said
Protesters started assem-
bling around bus stops at the
airport terminal around 1 pm
Sunday. At around 2 pm, pro-
testers blocked roads with trol-
leys and other barriers, charged
at water-filled barriers, pointed
lasers and hurled objects at po-
lice and airport authority work-
ers.
Global Times reporters spot-
ted a serious traffic jam at the
Tsing Ma bridge which links
Hong Kong Island and the air-
port. They noticed that en route
to the airport, some drivers in-
tentionally slowed to disrupt
public transport.
A taxi driver told the Global
Times that such drivers were
supporters of the violent pro-
tests and their moves were in-
tentional.
The protesters launched an
illegal campaign they called
“testing transport system of
Hong Kong airport.”
Passengers and air crew
members had to get out of their
cars and walk to the airport as
protesters brought traffic to a
standstill.
Hong Kong police said a
large number of protesters
threw iron sticks, bricks and
stones at the railway track near
the airport station from 4 pm,
and some people broke onto
the track of the Airport Expressline, seriously obstructing train
services.
Car Park 1 of Hong Kong
International Airport closed
Sunday as radicals called on
residents to clog travel routes to
the airport and stage protests.
Trains to the airport were sus-
pended. Hong Kong police said
the protesters were participat-
ing in an illegal assembly and
since an injunction was still in
force, the protesters are liable
to be charged with contempt of
court.
After days of disturbances
and violence by unlawful as-
semblies at the airport, the
Airport Authority Hong Kong
obtained on August 14 an in-
terim injunction from the court
to restrain persons from unlaw-
fully and willfully obstructing
or interfering with the proper
use of Hong Kong Internation-
al Airport.
“What these people are do-
ing have shown to the world
what the so-called democracy
and freedom are like! They
have no thinking, and it is
worse than taking drugs,” the
taxi driver said. The driver told
the Global Times reporters his
income had dropped 30 per-
cent during the last two months
of radical protests.
Reports came in about 5 pm
Sunday that some protesters
had set fire to a national flag
in Tung Chung. A person who
desecrates the Chinese national
flag by publicly and willfully
burning it commits an offense
and is liable to a fine and im-
prisonment for three years, ac-
cording to the city’s National
Flag and National Emblem Or-
dinance.
The incidents on Sunday
came after radical protesters or-
ganized illegal rallies Saturday
blocking traffic, throwing Molo-
tov cocktails and bricks at police
and damaging public property
including the city government
complex.
Hong Kong police said Sun-
day morning that they were
confident and capable of taking
illegal personnel into custody,
urging peaceful and rational
residents to draw a clear line
against violence so as to return
Hong Kong onto the right track.
The police arrested three
people in a hotel room in
Causeway Bay on Saturday,
seizing equipment including
helmets, body armor and gas
masks. Eight people in West-
ern District were also captured,
with the police saying Sunday
they had uncovered “a large
number of fake press cards,
paint, axes and electronic base-
ball launchers.”Cao Siqi, Liu Xuanzun and Wang
Qi contributed to this story2 Monday September 2, 2019Page Editor:
caosiqi@
globaltimes.com.cnTOPNEWS
US insincere addressing
trade war issues: analysts
All apologies
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier speaks at a ceremony in the Polish city of Wielun on
Sunday marking the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. Steinmeier asked Poland’s
forgiveness for history’s bloodiest conflict (See story on Page 9). Photo: AFPMobs burn another Chinese
national flag, smash up facilities
in new town of Tung Chung
HK, from Page 1New, from Page 1