After China launched a formal complaint to the World Trade Organization against the US, the spat continued in the ongoing tit-for-tat tariffs and declarations between the world’s economic superpowers. The state media in China took the bold step in calling for the commercial and industrial industries in the US to push back against Trump's plans for more tariffs on imported goods, warning the US ‘of getting burnt in the end by playing with fire’. The People’s Daily, a state newspaper urged US companies to stand up to the Trump administration, believing that its posturing is the result of an ‘anxiety disorder’. ‘We call on the international business community including the United States industrial and commercial circles to take prompt and effective measures and urge the U.S. government to correct its errors’ the paper said whilst adding, unsurprisingly, that domestic industries are fully behind the Chinese government in any action it takes against the tariffs.
Also over the weekend, the ongoing scandal in Japan over the sale of government land to the school operator Moritomo Gakuen in Osaka in 2016 has taken another twist after it was reported that Japan’s Finance Ministry suggested engineering a cover story: according to an official from the ministry. The head of the Finance Ministry’s finance bureau, Mitsuru Ota, said in a statement to parliament: ‘Last year on Feb. 20 a finance bureau employee contacted Moritomo Gakuen’s lawyer and suggested saying a lot of money was spent on the removal of rubbish and thousands of trucks were used’ Ota did add that the lawyer did not take any action on the suggestion believing ‘It was wrong for us to ask Moritomo Gakuen to say something that was not true’.