China Will Fight US Tariffs Even at Famine-Level Cost: Insider

Xi suggests China must rely on a prolonged struggle and the mobilization of the entire population.

Chinese security guards look at military delegates during the speech of Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the Communist Party's 19th Congress in Beijing on Oct. 18, 2017. Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty Images

As Washington and Beijing remain locked in a high-stakes tariff war, an insider said Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials are willing to engage in a long-term conflict with the United States.

According to the insider, Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s close ally, Cai Qi, said at a high-level CCP meeting to assess the U.S.–China tariff war that the Chinese populace must endure the resulting economic strain—even if it causes suffering for the Chinese people on par with the Great Famine of 1959 to 1961, which killed an estimated 40 million across rural China.