China vows ‘resolute, effective measures’ after US' additional 50% tariff
Beijing, Apr 9 (PTI): China on Wednesday promised to take “resolute and forceful” measures to safeguard its rights and interests, after net total tariffs of 104 per cent by President Donald Trump on Chinese imports into the US took effect.
After Trump's additional 50 per cent tariffs on the world's second-largest economy, China has not announced any new tariffs on the US.
President Trump’s next round of punishing tariffs on some of America’s largest trading partners went into effect on Wednesday, including stiff new levies that will increase import taxes on Chinese goods by at least 104 percent.
Trump’s explosive new tariffs on 60 countries came into effect just after midnight Wednesday US time.
The additional tariffs on China kicked in after Beijing refused to meet Trump's deadline to withdraw its own retaliatory levies on the US.
Asked why China has not slapped retaliatory tariffs after Tuesday’s assertions to fight till the end and whether the two countries are holding talks to resolve the issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a media briefing here “China continues to take firm and resolute measures to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests”.
"We will not tolerate any attempt to harm China’s sovereignty, security and development interests”, he said.
"As for the dialogue you mentioned, if the US really wants to address the issue through talks it should take the attitude of equality respect and mutual benefit," he said.
"But right now, the US still abusing tariffs on China perusing maximum pressure and China opposes and never accepts such bullying and hegemonic acts," he said.
On April 2, the president imposed a 10 per cent global tariff on hundreds of countries and promised far steeper “reciprocal” tariffs on April 9 for nations that he maintains have “ripped off” America.
Since February, the president has imposed successive rounds of tariffs on China. On Wednesday, the minimum tax on Chinese imports hit 104 per cent.
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
