April in Review

In this review of the month of April, we cover China has been squaring off with prominent Western countries, including the United States and Canada.

Diplomacy

A Month of Tumultuous Events Between the West and China

By Senior Contributor Kenny Li

April brought forth many events that challenged the international status quo, including Trump’s “Liberation Day” of tariffs, deteriorating diplomatic relationships between Western countries and China, and international sanctions against technology.

Rapid Changes Alienate U.S. Voters: As President Donald Trump grew closer to his 100-day office mark, he executed what was vowed on the campaign trail and announced sweeping tariffs with virtually every nation. While tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and China were quickly implemented after Trump’s inauguration, the severity was relatively low, and Western countries struck deals with the Trump administration. However, China continuously played trade “tit-for-tat” with the United States, implementing tariffs of the same or greater severity and launching retaliation investigations against American companies. On April 2nd, Trump unveiled his long-anticipated “Liberation Day” tariffs, launching base tariffs of 10% worldwide and setting China’s tariff rate at 54%. Since then, China and the United States have continued to play “tit-for-tat” with their tariff leverage; the U.S. tariffs on China are based at 145% and can amount to 245%, and China's tariffs on the U.S. are set at 125%. Each country views the tariffs differently: President Trump has called them “the most powerful economic tool,” while President Xi Jinping has remained defiant to the U.S. demands, calling China “unafraid” and viewing the tariffs as a bullying tactic that will turn the U.S. into a joke. The tariffs had a devastating effect on the stock market: $9.6 trillion was wiped off after the so-called “Liberation Day” went into effect, and as a result, on April 9th, Trump paused tariffs except for China. Accused of insider trading, Trump’s actions against China have caused discomfort within the United States, with many disapproving of the tariffs. It is unclear what Trump’s next move is, however, his actions have created doubt on whether or not he can fulfill his campaign promise of refining the economy.

A Slate of Technological Bumps: Due to tariffs between U.S.-China relations, technological norms in each country have been subject to changes. In early April, China launched an investigation into Google in response to the tariffs; Google owns DeepMind, an artificial intelligence (AI) company, which created Gemini and is one of the leading companies in the AI race. Also in April, President Trump extended the TikTok ban once again, which he has viewed as a bargaining chip for U.S.-China trade relations, and also due to the increasing pool of potential buyers such as Amazon and Blackstone. Trump’s shift on TikTok has divided Republican legislators, who have long believed the app poses a grave national security threat. In mid-April, China accused the U.S. of being the perpetrators of cybersecurity attacks against the 2025 Asian Winter Games, alleging that the National Security Agency (NSA) had targeted core infrastructure to support the games. In similar concerns to TikTok, the U.S. House of Representatives also subpoenaed China’s biggest cloud-service providers after they failed to provide information regarding American consumer data.

Canada’s Mark Carney against Xi: In late April, Canadian Mark Carney was officially elected as the country’s prime minister, beating the Conservative Party Leader Pierre Polievre. The victory by the Canadian Liberal Party was a continuation of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, which, after months of political and economic stains on his reputation, resigned in March and handed his premiership to Carney. Prime Minister Carney is known for his “hawkish” stance against China, calling the country one of the largest perpetrators of foreign interference in Canada and an emerging threat in the Arctic region. Outside of Canada itself, Carney has raised concerns over China’s support of Russia in the Ukraine war, which he argues destabilizes Asia as a whole. After Carney’s election victory, spokesperson Mao Ning from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs congratulated him and expressed China’s hope that Canada would commit to improving Canada-China relations. While Carney could add China relations as a priority, he has other fish to fry: shaking off President Trump’s commitment to making Canada the 51st state and dealing with the U.S. tariffs is what won him the election and is what Carney is making his highest priority.