BEIJING/WASHINGTON: China has put civilian government officials in Beijing on “wartime footing” and ordered a diplomatic charm offensive aimed at encouraging other countries to push back against US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, according to four people familiar with the matter.

Communist Party propaganda officials have played a leading role in framing China’s response, one of the people said, with government spokespeople posting defiant clips on social media featuring former leader Mao Zedong saying “we will never yield.”

As part of the “wartime” posture, the details of which are being reported by Reuters for the first time, bureaucrats in the foreign affairs and commerce ministries have been ordered to cancel vacation plans and keep mobile phones switched on around the clock, two of the people said. Departments covering the US have also been beefed up, including with officials who worked on China’s response to Trump’s first term, they said.

The combative all-of-government approach after Trump’s “Liberation Day” salvo marked a hard turn for Beijing, which had tried to avoid a spiraling trade war. For months, Chinese diplomats had tried to establish a high-level channel of communication with Trump’s administration to defend what China’s cabinet has described in state media campaigns as a “win-win” trading relationship.

Optimistic Chinese observers even held out hope for a grand bargain with Trump over trade, TikTok – and perhaps even Taiwan. This account of how China shifted from seeking a deal to punching back with retaliatory tariffs and threatening all-out defiance is based on interviews with more than a dozen people, including US and Chinese government officials, as well as other diplomats and scholars briefed on bilateral exchanges.

Four of them also described how Beijing’s diplomats have been engaging other governments targeted by Trump tariffs, including sending letters seeking cooperation to several countries. Longstanding US allies in Europe, Japan and South Korea have also been contacted, two people said. Most of the people spoke on condition of anonymity to describe confidential government deliberations.

“China is a responsible major country. We stand up against hegemony, not only to safeguard our own rightful interests, but also to uphold the common interests of the international community,” the Chinese foreign ministry said in a faxed statement.

It added that, “This trade war was started by the US and imposed on China... If the US really wants to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiations, it should stop applying extreme pressure. Any dialogue should be established on the basis of equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit.”

Even after Trump was elected on the promise of high tariffs, relations with Beijing got off to a polite start. Trump invited Xi to his inauguration, which was eventually attended by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng. Things started deteriorating soon after.

Chinese ambassador to the US Xie Feng made unsuccessful attempts before the election to reach Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk, said a US scholar who recently visited China for unofficial exchanges that Beijing has historically used to communicate with Washington policymakers. Musk didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

While many countries were hit by US tariffs this month for the first time, China honed its response during previous bouts of the Sino-American trade war. Drawing on lessons from Trump’s first term, China created a retaliatory playbook that includes tariffs as well as restrictions on about 60 US companies and curbs on exports of rare earths.

The effort was a result of weeks of preparations by Chinese government officials who had been tasked with studying Trump’s policies and suggesting countermeasures that could be gradually scaled up, according to two people familiar with the situation. Xi opted for a strong response, hitting back with across-the-board levies even before Trump’s announced tariffs went into effect. The duties were announced shortly before Wall Street opened on April 4 - a public holiday in China. US equities dropped sharply lower.

‘Never yield’

China’s foreign ministry has summoned many of the heads of its overseas missions back to Beijing for a special meeting held this week to coordinate the response, according to two Beijing-based diplomats. China has also sent formal letters to government officials of other countries pressured by Trump to engage in trade negotiations. The letters, which were described to Reuters by four people familiar with their contents, outlined the Chinese position as well as the need for multipolarity and for countries to stand together. The messaging also included criticism of US policy that echoed China’s public statements.

China has approached some G20 governments with wording for a joint declaration voicing support for the multilateral trading system, an EU diplomat told Reuters. But the diplomat said that the messaging did not address concerns also held by non-US governments about Chinese overcapacity, its subsidy regime and alleged unfair competition. Beijing has said those concerns are overblown and that the rise of its high-tech industries is due to its comparative advantages and benefits the world. China is also heavily focused on the domestic reaction to the tariffs, with social media users this week widely reposting an April 7 editorial in the official People’s Daily warning against panic.

China has also recently started encouraging households to spend more and has dramatically changed its language about domestic consumption. Beijing is aiming to shift the engine of growth from exports to consumers at a time when the economy remains hobbled by a crisis of failed real estate development. “The real battlefield is on the domestic front, rather than bilateral negotiations,” said Zhao of Fudan University.

Chinese officials also published on Musk’s X platform a clip of Chairman Mao giving a speech in 1953 - the last time the US and China were in direct military conflict during the Korean War. In the clip, Mao, whose oldest son died in the war, says peace is up to the Americans. “No matter how long this war is going to last, we’ll never yield,” he said. “We’ll fight until we completely triumph.” — AFP