China sends a stern video message to Trump: We won’t ‘kneel down’

When the rest of the world stands together in solidarity, the U.S. is just a small, stranded boat,

an AI narration warns, over dramatic storm footage and war imagery

It’s up to China to de-escalate, because they sell five times more to us than we sell to them,

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday on CNBC

All bullies are just paper tigers,

the AI narrator says while showing a tiger holding an American flag in its tail

History has proven compromise won’t earn you mercy—kneeling only invites more bullying."

According to the WSJ report, the video claims

Bowing to a bully is like drinking poison to quench thirst – it only deepens the crisis,

China said in its video, narrated in English and subtitled in Chinese

We know standing up for ourselves keep the possibility of cooperation alive,

the video said

China will stand firm, no matter how hard the wind blows,

China said in the video

There was a lot of vulnerability, and now China is a lot more insulated,

said Pay

The longer the standoff lasts, the bigger harm it will bring to both China and the U.S.,

said Fudan’s Song

China’s countermeasures against the U.S. and display of defiance might help it win some hearts and support from other developing countries victimized by the tariffs,

said Song Guoyou, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University

If we choose to give the bully an inch by remaining silent, giving in or backing down, we are only emboldening them to take a yard,

he said, according to a Chinese readout

Amid the turbulent clouds of the present, it would be worthwhile to reread ‘On Protracted War,’ to appreciate the dialectical thinking that ‘danger and opportunity coexist,’ and to grasp the strategic vision explaining why China ‘will ultimately achieve final victory,

the Beijing Daily blog post read

Someone has to step forward, torch in hand, to shatter the fog and illuminate the path ahead,

the English voice-over continues

The Chinese people’s rice bowl is firmly held in their own hands,

Zhao Chenxin, a top official at the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s state planner, said at a news conference Monday

Only by daring to struggle and being adept at struggle can danger be turned into opportunity and crisis into safety,

the article continued

We are not trying to be anyone’s hero, but someone has to take a stand,

he said

The US, which has long benefited enormously from free trade, is now going so far as to use tariffs as a bargaining chip to demand exorbitant prices from all countries. If one chooses to remain silent, compromise and cower, it will only make the bully want to push his luck more,

Wang said in Brazil on Monday

What we haven’t done is escalate by embargoing those goods or putting a trade ban on those goods, which we could if we needed to, to gain more leverage,

Bessent added

That the Chinese are exempting all these goods tells me that they want a de-escalation,

he said in an interview with CNBC, citing Beijing’s reported move to suspend 125% tariffs on US imports including medical equipment, plane leases and at least eight semiconductor-related products

They make up bargaining chips out of thin air, bully and go back on their words,

said Zhao Chenxin, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s main economic planning agency