China’s wrath over President Donald Trump’s tariff war has now taken aim at the beleaguered aircraft giant Boeing.
Beijing has ordered Chinese airlines to refuse deliveries of jets from Boeing and end any purchases of aircrafts and parts from U.S. owned companies. President Xi Jinping’s government is also considering how it can help airlines that already operate existing Boeing aircraft to get rid of them, Bloomberg reported.
The directives are a response to China’s decision to impose 125 percent levies on American imports in retaliation over Trump’s tariffs. The move by Beijing had more than doubled the cost of Boeing aircraft for Chinese airlines, making them prohibitively expensive already.
The maneuvering by Beijing comes after Trump imposed 145 percent tariffs on many of China’s exports to the U.S. in March.
The White House temporarily paused many of Trump’s “retaliatory” tariffs after crashing the stock market last week, but levies on China remain in place. Xi has vowed to “fight until the end” over the trade war, from which he warned this week there will be “no winners.”
China Southern Airlines Co., Xiamen Airlines Co, and Air China Ltd are among the Chinese airlines awaiting the delivery of aircraft from Boeing, with each expecting two planes from the U.S. supplier.
A further two Boeing aircraft are on order for China, bringing the total up to 10.
Some of those planes may be able to enter service for Chinese airlines on a case-by-case basis, Bloomberg reported.
Boeing shares went down by as much as 2.5 percent on Tuesday after reports of Beijing’s orders to Chinese airlines emerged and were down 1.61 percent at noon on Wall Street.
As well as a blow to Boeing, the move is a boost to Airbus, the plane maker’s biggest competitor. The European consortium would become the only logical bidder for many plane supply contracts, something which could be exploited by China as it seeks allies against the U.S.
Xi’s plane strike comes after Vice President JD Vance called Chinese workers who assemble such products “peasants” in a Fox & Friends interview last week.
“We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture,” he said.
China also clapped back at JD Vance on Tuesday, calling his remarks “ignorant and impolite.”
Beijing “has made its position perfectly clear on its trade relations with the U.S.,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during a press conference. “To hear words that lack knowledge and respect like those uttered by this vice president is both surprising and kind of lamentable.”
