China’s Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Tong De Fa has revealed that China is not in support of ongoing debates about African countries taking sides with the ongoing tariff war between the Peoples Republic of China and the United States of America. Compromising and taking sides, according to Amb. Tong De Fa, will not earn countries on the continent of Africa.
While reiterating the stance of the Chinese government, Amb. Tong De Fa, shared, no African nation should be compromised by virtue of their alliances for temporary exemptions. “Appeasement will not bring peace, and compromise will not bring respect”, Amb. De Fa reminded during a press briefing with selected Ghanaian media houses and civil society representatives at the Ambassadors residence in Accra on Wednesday 23rd of April, 2025. Amb. De Fa argued that any attempt to choose sides in the ongoing tariff war and also sacrificing others’ interest to gain favour with any of the parties’ involved is tantamount to negotiating with a python.
Amb. De Fa, however admonished African countries that have bilateral relations with China not to sacrifice China’s interest in the ensuing trade war to gain concessional favours from the United States. He dismissed claims peddled by some international media outlets to the effect that China has been warning countries they have ties with not to support the US in the protracted tariff feud, saying that’s an outright misrepresentation of facts.
An economic conflict has ensued between the two global powers, China and the US since 2018, during the first term of President Donald Trump. President Trump set trade barriers and tariffs on China at the time with the objective of coercing China to effect changes with what the US, at the time, believed were longstanding unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft adopted by China. The first Trump administration therefore attributed the US-China trade deficit to these unfair practices by China necessitating an action by President Trump. China’s President Xi Jinping at the time accused the first Trump administration of in nationalist protectionism. Situations subsequently escalated in 2019. By 2020, the countries had reached a tense phase-one agreement. Biden’s administration, however, kept the agreed tariffs in place but later slapped additional levies on Chinese products such as electric vehicles and solar panels.
The trade reared its head again in the early parts of 2025 with Trump imposing a 145% rate on goods imported into the US from China. The Chinese government reciprocated with a 125% rate. According to watchers the war might have resulted in about 0.2% loss in global supply volumes.
Ambassador Tong De Fa believes the posturing of the US will impact the US economy more than that of China. But, he revealed that China is willing and ready to support any multilateral approach to dealing with the impasse saying the actions by the US represent a disruption and a breach of the WTO conventions.
H.E De Fa summarily advised African governments to be circumspect in how they approach the conversation of the trade wars. He shared that African governments can act in their own self interest and not dabble in matters that have the possibility of marring their relationships with any of the parties involved in the trade war.
Sefah-Danquah S.
