US Vice-President Vance Calls Chinese People "Peasants" In Tariff Interview
The interview was aired on Fox News last Thursday, 3 April.
By Yap Wan Xiang β 09 Apr 2025, 11:34 AM
US vice-president JD Vance has been slammed for calling Chinese nationals "peasants" during an interview with conservative media Fox News last week
In the interview discussing US president Donald Trump's tariffs, Vance criticised China, describing the trade practices between the two nations as not being a "recipe for economic prosperity".
"What has the globalist economy gotten the United States of America? And the answer is, fundamentally, it's based on two principles β incurring a huge amount of debt to buy things that other countries make for us.
"To make it a little more crystal clear, we borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.
"That is not a recipe for economic prosperity, it is not a recipe for low prices, and it's not a recipe for good jobs in the United States of America," he said.
Vance's remarks have gone viral on Chinese social media since the interview aired last Thursday, 3 April, drawing attention from leaders in Beijing
Commenting on the interview yesterday, 8 April, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, described the remarks as "ignorant".
"China's position on China-US trade relations has been made very clear.
"It is surprising and saddening to hear such ignorant and disrespectful remarks from this vice-president," SCMP quoted Lin as saying.
The ministry added that "pressure, threats and blackmail are not the right way to deal with China", referring to Trump's escalating tariffs against Chinese imports.
On Tuesday, China said it would never accept the "blackmail nature" of the US after the country imposed another 50% tariff against the Asian country.
This comes after the announcement last Friday, 4 April, that China retaliated against the US by raising an additional tariff of 34% on US goods.
