Including the additional hike yesterday, the punitive tariffs the US administration has levied on imports from China have soared to 125 percent.
Given that US President Donald Trump announced the latest move on the grounds he has failed to see the desired capitulation from China, the ab irato nature of the tariffs — a Latin phrase used in law to describe a decision or action that is motivated by hatred or anger instead of reason — is evident.

As far as the trade war his administration has initiated is concerned, it is not a question of which side will blink first, it is a question of principles.

The president and his administration are trying to coerce the entire world into accepting the falsehood that the United States has been — hitherto unwittingly, presumably — ripped off, not just by China, but by the entire world in the past decades, so it is justifiable for the US to now seek payback.

Thus their premise is they can impose as many tariffs as they like on the US' trading partners. Any countermeasures, rather than grovelling entreaties for leniency, are considered to be disrespectful to the benevolence the US leader wants to dispense from on high and are therefore to be met with even more punitive tariffs to put any uppity countries in their place. It may be dressed in new clothes, but it is still the tired, old, might-makes-right approach that characterizes Washington's world view.

It is the mindset of rogues.

But in the midst of the escalating tensions, a silver lining has emerged as economies are positioning themselves to deepen their commitment to global economic cooperation, signaling a proactive stance toward trade facilitation and openness in the face of the US' denigratory assault on global trade ties.

The Ministry of Commerce revealed on Wednesday that China's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao discussed in a video call on Tuesday with European trade and economic security commissioner Maros Sefcovic the restart of talks on trade relief and to immediately carry out negotiations on electric vehicle price commitments. This suggests that the European Union and China are on the same page when it comes to the US administration's imperious contempt for the international trade system.

Wang also had a video call on Wednesday with Tengku Zafrul Aziz, the minister of trade and industry of Malaysia, which holds the rotating chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. They talked about further economic cooperation between China and the ASEAN members under the framework of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the world's largest free trade agreement.

With the US administration demonstrating that it will not abide by the established rules and it will make new ones up as it goes along, China will undoubtedly make more overtures to expand its economic and trade cooperation with more countries on the basis of equality and mutual interest, so that the world mall is protected from the US' looting.

China has already shown its credentials as a strong defender of the global trade system under the framework of the World Trade Organization. It is this globalized trading system, from which countries, including the US, have benefited, that has laid the foundation for the development of the global economy. It is under this globalized economic system that the current global industry and supply chains have been continuously optimized for the common development of all countries.

Through its coercive tariffs, the US administration is not just trying to bully the entire world in a bid to preen the US' alpha male primacy, but also seeking to disrupt and distort the global industry and supply chains to give an anabolic steroid-type boost to its economic muscles. If the entire world caves in to the tariffs, the global economic system under the framework of the WTO will crumble, and there will be a free-for-all scramble to take advantage of the weaker.

To defend globalization that is underpinned by multilateralism and free trade, and to safeguard the world order under the framework of the United Nations, countries must make a decisive effort to uphold an interconnected and interdependent global economy in the face of the US administration's demented demolition derby. By standing united against the US administration's smash-and-grab actions that take a wrecking ball to the previously negotiated deals that have been underpinned by the principles of fair trade, economies can collectively reaffirm their commitment to fostering an environment conducive to sustainable economic growth and development.

The US too can be a constructive contributor to this or can continue to behave like a bitter and angry man shaking his fist at a world he no longer understands.