Anyone betting that Chinese President Xi Jinping would back down quickly in a trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump better think again.
Xi told a Beijing crowd including some of China's most influential political, military and business figures on Tuesday that the country's growing wealth and power had validated the Communist Party's — and thus his own — leadership. "No one is in the position to dictate to the Chinese people what should and should not be done," Xi said.
Xi's speech — an 80-minute recitation of party achievements — outlined no new economic policies that might assuage investor concerns about market access or the slowing economy. Instead, he reaffirmed China's pursuit of "indigenous innovation" in "core technologies."