104% US tariffs

 In just over an hour, US levies on many China-made imports are set to rise to 104%.

Some products like cars, semiconductors, steel and aluminium will face lower taxes.

Beijing has shown no signs of backing down, as it pledges to place its own taxes on American imports.

But some analysts say the tariffs will hit China hard, forcing it to restructure its economy and rely heavily on domestic consumption.

In reality, any tariff upwards of 35% will wipe out all the profits that Chinese businesses make when exporting to the US or South East Asia, said Dan Wang from the Eurasia Group consultancy.

"Any tariff above that is only symbolic," she said, citing industry figures.

She also warned that China is likely to miss its annual growth target of around 5% if its economy is closed off to trade. "Growth is going to be much lower since exports contributed to 20% to 50% of growth since the Covid pandemic."

Tim Waterer from brokerage KCM Trade said import taxes of 104% will not be "sustainable [for China], given the export dynamics of the Chinese economy".

"In the short term they can handle it, but to weather these tariff levels over the longer term would require China to make structural changes such as rebalancing their economy," he added.