The President's Daily Brief
PDB Afternoon Bulletin | April 11th, 2025: China Signals No More Tariff Hikes After Latest Escalation & Bombshell Report Reveals The CCP's Role In Cyberattacks On US Infrastructure
11 Apr 2025
In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: First, an update on the ongoing trade war, as China hits back at Trump’s massive 145 percent tariff by hiking rates on U.S. goods. But officials with the CCP also signaled it will likely be their last escalation, saying they will ignore any additional tariff increases by the US. Later in the show, a bombshell report reveals that Chinese officials acknowledged in a secret meeting that their government is behind widespread cyberattacks targeting critical U.S. infrastructure over America’s support for Taiwan. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief TriTails Premium Beef: Visit https://TryBeef.com/PDB for 2 Free Flat Iron steaks with your first box over $250 Jacked Up Fitness: Go to https://GetJackedUp.com and use code BAKER at checkout to save 10% off your entire purchase Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
It's Friday, the 11th of April. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First, an update on the ongoing trade war. As China hits back at Trump's massive 145% tariff, by hiking rates on US goods.
But officials with the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP, also signaled that it's likely that will be their last escalation, saying they'll ignore any additional tariff increases by the US. Later in the show, a report reveals that Chinese officials acknowledged in a secret meeting that their government is behind widespread cyber attacks targeting critical U.S.
infrastructure over America's support for Taiwan. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. China is once again striking back in the rapidly intensifying trade war with the US but signalled that it will be their last escalation, dismissing any further tariff hikes by the Trump administration as a quote, joke that they plan to ignore.
On Friday morning, the Chinese finance ministry announced that they will increase tariffs on U.S. goods from 84% to 125%, matching President Trump's levy on Chinese imports imposed on Wednesday. The increased trade tax is set to take effect on Saturday and will impact some $144 billion worth of U.S. exports, namely agricultural products like soybeans, and that's according to a report from Axios.
As a reminder, earlier this week, President Trump hiked his tariff on China, our third-largest trading partner, to 125%, despite granting the rest of the world a 90-day tariff pause to negotiate new trade deals. The White House later clarified that the new tariff comes on top of a 20% duty imposed earlier this year over China's role in the manufacturing of illicit fentanyl.
raising the total baseline rate, are you following me so far, on Chinese imports to an eye-watering 145%. As we've been tracking this week on the PDB, China has responded with angry condemnations. I don't know if there's any other kind of condemnation other than angry, vowing to fight to the end.
but their latest statement suggests that they may already be feeling the pressure and are perhaps eager to avoid further escalations that risk further damaging their fragile economy. After their latest tariff retaliation on Friday, officials with the Chinese finance ministry said, quote, even if the U.S.
continues to impose higher tariffs, it will no longer make economic sense and will become a joke in the history of the world economy. The statement continued, quote, given that American goods are no longer marketable in China under the current tariff rates, if the U.S. further raises tariffs on Chinese exports, China will disregard such measures, end quote.
The remarks appear to possibly leave a small opening for easing tensions with the Trump administration, though if the events of the past week are anything to go on, we can likely expect another retaliation by President Trump. So, why does China appear reluctant to continue in the tit-for-tat exchange with the U.S. ?
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