By Shuli Ren
President Xi Jinping has a nickname in China. Instead of calling him by name, people commonly use Da Da, or “Mr Big”. After all, he is the nation’s most powerful politician in decades, serving a precedent-defying third term. He also dares to challenge the world’s biggest economy, and China’s only real rival, promoting a multipolar global order instead of unchallenged US dominance.
It should come as no surprise, then, that China is acting differently from Canada or Mexico as US President Donald Trump imposes trade tariffs. Not willing to capitulate to what it sees as bullying, Beijing is taking the 10 per cent extra levy in stride.
Xi Jinping won’t allow himself to be pushed around by Donald Trump.Credit: AP
Compared to 2018, when US tariffs were last imposed, China may feel …