China trying to be friends with India again? Beijing asks India to 'stand together' amid Trump's tariffs

As Trump's tariffs are affecting the world's economy at large, China has turned all friendly towards India, stressing that the two "largest developing" countries should "stand together" to overcome the difficulties brought by the ongoing trade war.

Spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in India said that China-India economic and trade relationship is based on complimentarity and mutual benefit.

"Facing the U.S. abuse of tariffs, which deprives countries, especially Global South countries, of their right to development, the two largest developing countries should stand together to overcome the difficulties," Spokesperson Yu Jing said in a post on X.

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She further stressed that China's economy is underpinned by a system that ensures steady growth, and produces positive spillovers, adding that the country is a firm "defender of economic globalization and multilateralism, which has injected strong impetus into the world economy, contributing to around 30 percent of global growth annually on average."

She asserted that Beijing will continue working with the rest of the world to safeguard the multilateral trade system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core.

Stressing that "trade and tariff wars have no winner", she said that all countries should uphold the principles of extensive consultation, practice true multilateralism, and jointly oppose all forms of unilateralism and protectionism.

This comes amid US President Donald Trump slapped a 104% tariff on Chinese goods starting from 12:01 AM Eastern Time (12:01 PM Beijing time) on Wednesday.

The move comes after China failed to remove its retaliatory tariffs on American products before a deadline set by Donald Trump for noon on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Trump posted on his Truth Social account, mentioning China, saying he is waiting for them to reach out. “China also wants to make a deal, badly, but they don’t know how to get it started. We are waiting for their call. It will happen!” he wrote.

In another Truth Social post from Monday, Trump had warned that if China did not roll back what he described as a “34% increase above their already long term trading abuses” by April 8, the US would respond with an additional 50% tariff, effective from April 9.

China further responded, saying that it would not give in to the US pressure.

(With inputs from agencies)