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China dusts off Mao against Trump: ‘America is a paper tiger’

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Trade war, tariffs skyrocket: foreign ministry spokeswoman quotes the Great Helmsman to challenge Washington

Tension between the US and China is reignited on the trade front, and Beijing responds with an ideological narrative with an ancient flavour. For days now, Mao Ning – the new head of communications at the Chinese Foreign Ministry – has been publicly reviving historical phrases by the founder of the People’s Republic Mao Zedong. The aim: to openly challenge the administration of US President Donald Trump and its strict tariff policy.

The latest viral statement is one of the most famous: ‘The United States is just a paper tiger’. A metaphor that Chinese diplomacy has recovered to describe American aggression as ostentatious but insubstantial, just as Washington – with the 90-day suspension of tariffs for dozens of countries – has excluded China from the benefit, leaving it alone in the crosshairs with an overall tariff burden of up to 145%.

A native of Xiangtan, the same city as Mao Zedong in Hunan province, Mao Ning has intensified the tone of his speeches, even broadcasting video clips with quotes from the Great Helmsman on X (inaccessible in China for ordinary citizens). ‘No matter how long this war lasts, we will never give in,’ Mao says in one of them, originally referring to the Korean conflict in the 1950s but clearly addressing that message to Trump’s America today.

The statements also coincide with an escalation in tone by state media and other Chinese officials, who reiterate their willingness to fight this trade war ‘blow by blow’, without concessions, until the end.

In Beijing’s chosen language, the trade war has ceased to be a simple economic confrontation and has become an ideological terrain. A return to the propaganda of the hard times, with the use of the figure of Mao as a symbol of resistance and defiance. A move that confirms the extent to which the competition between the two superpowers is veering towards an increasingly radical confrontation, as much in duties as in the global narrative.

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