JACK MA SAYS DONALD TRUMP'S TRADE WAR WITH CHINA COULD LEAD TO MILITARY CONFLICT

Alibaba founder Jack Ma has warned that President Donald Trump’s trade war with China could lead to military conflict.

“When trade stops, sometimes the war starts. So trade is the way to stop wars,” the Chinese billionaire entrepreneur warned Tuesday during the opening panel discussion at the World Trade Organization Public Forum in Geneva, South China Morning Post reported. “Trade is the way to build up trust,” he continued. “Trade is not the weapon to fight against each other.”

Ma, whose company became the second in Asia to be valued at more than $500 billion, suggested that Beijing and Washington should move toward cooperation instead of escalation in the trade dispute.

“I think China and the U.S. should work together to solve this challenge, create more jobs, cure poverty, use technology to solve disease and the environment – instead of this kind of war,” the businessman said. “It’s going to destroy not only China-U.S. trade but also lots of other countries and small businesses,” he warned.

Calling on the international business community to stand against the trade conflict, Ma said: “we should have the solution to solving the problem by not confronting each other.”

Trade tensions have escalated as Trump has slapped $250 billion of Chinese products with new tariffs. He first moved to add the additional levies to $50 billion of China’s imports this summer, to which Beijing responded in a tit-for-tat manner, placing new taxes on an equal amount of U.S. products. Last month, Trump added tariffs to another $200 billion of imports, to which Beijing retaliated by adding levies to a further $60 billion of U.S. goods.

China also announced at the end of September that it would cut import tariffs on a range of non-U.S. products. The decision is expected to save Chinese consumers and businesses about $8.7 billion. It also aims to encourage Chinese consumers to avoid purchasing U.S. goods and choose other alternatives instead.

Speaking about the dispute at the United Nations General Assembly a week ago, Trump reiterated his criticism of Beijing.

“We will no longer tolerate such abuse. We will not allow our workers to be victimized, our companies to be cheated, and our wealth to be plundered and transferred,” he said.

Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, also accused the U.S. last of week of having “a cold war mentality.”