Trump's Trade War Is Rattling China's Leaders

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

NYT
Keith Bradsher and Steven Lee Myers
Aug. 14, 2018

[excerpt]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/world/asia/china-trade-war-trump-xi-jinping-.html

BEIJING — China’s leaders have sought to project confidence in the face of President Trump’s tariffs and trade threats. But as it becomes clear that a protracted trade war with the United States may be unavoidable, there are growing signs of unease inside the Communist political establishment.

In recent days, officials from the Commerce Ministry, the police and other agencies have summoned exporters to ask about plans to lay off workers or shift supply chains to other countries.

With stocks slumping and the currency dropping 9 percent against the dollar since mid-April, censors have been deleting a torrent of criticism online, some of it directed at President Xi Jinping’s leadership.

State news outlets, by contrast, have sought to promote the official line, with the authorities restricting the use of the phrase “trade war.”