China voices strength, pushes nationalism around trade war

A social media post exhorting Chinese consumers to buy more tilapia to offset the effects of China's ongoing economic dispute with the United States is seen on a computer screen in Beijing, Wednesday, May 15, 2019. What do tilapia, Jane Austen and revolutionary posters have in common? All have been used in recent days to rally public support around China's position in its trade dispute with the U.S., as the ruling Communist Party takes a newly aggressive approach to controlling the narrative and stirring up nationalistic sentiment. The poster on the right reads "all trade wars are a paper tiger." (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2018, file photo, a man walks by a poster depicting a mural of U.S. President Donald Trump stating that all American costumers will be charged 25 percent more than others starting from the day president Trump started the trade war against China, on display outside a restaurant in Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong province. What do tilapia, Jane Austen and revolutionary posters have in common? All have been used in recent days to rally public support around China's position in its trade dispute with the U.S., as the ruling Communist Party takes a newly aggressive approach to controlling the narrative and stirring up nationalistic sentiment. (Color China Photo via AP, File)

China's ruling Communist Party is taking a newly aggressive approach in how it portrays the worsening trade dispute with the United States — projecting stability and stirring up nationalistic sentiment in the process.

The harder line comes after days of muted official responses to President Donald Trump's decision to hike tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. Escalating the antagonism, China retaliated Monday with higher tariffs on $60 billion worth of American goods, raising duties of 5% to 25%.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader in decades, has shepherded the country's rise to prominence and nurtured the growth of a red-blooded but tightly controlled nationalism.

The approach shows a new willingness to allow a shift in domestic public opinion where the trade war is concerned, experts say.