By DIDI TANG and ZEKE MILLER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The tariff fight between the world’s two largest economies spiraled into greater peril Wednesday as President Donald Trump tried to narrow his global trade war into a direct — and risky — faceoff with Beijing.

As Trump reversed his larger “reciprocal” tariffs on most of the world in the face of recession fears, he nonetheless hiked his tariffs on China once again — to 125%. The move locks the strategic rivals into a deepening standoff that endangers both their economies and interests around the world. The stakes are higher than ever, as the U.S. and China are already embroiled in competition on everything from artificial intelligence to monetary policy to overall global influence.

Each nation dares the other to blink first. But the rounds of escalation are raising concerns that the window for diplomacy has narrowed even further, while the economic pain on both economies intensifies.

Behind it all, as usual, geopolitics lurks — the concerns about regional and global security that are always in play when economic relations between two of the world’s most powerful nations turn aggressive.

“When you punch the United States of America,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, “President Trump is going to punch back harder.”

A back-and-forth approach

After Beijing responded to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 34% “reciprocal” tax on China with the same 34% rate on American goods, Trump raised the tariff by another 50 percentage points, only to be met by the same tariff hike by Beijing on Wednesday morning. U.S. products going to China are now to be taxed 84%.

Hours later, Trump declared that Chinese imports to the United States would be “immediately” taxed at 125%, citing “lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets.”

“At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insisted this had been Trump’s strategy all along and that Beijing has “shown themselves to the world as the bad actors.”

While the financial markets rebounded from their deepest lows at the news that China would be facing the brunt of Trump’s wrath, the real-world prospects of the intensifying trade war with China were still set to be significant.

On Wednesday, the U.S.-China Business Council urged the two leaders to “come to the table” and talk. “Targeted tariffs to encourage China to come to the negotiating table are one thing, but these sweeping tit-for-tat tariffs are in no one’s interests. They will significantly harm the global, U.S., and Chinese economies as well as American businesses, farmers, and consumers,” the council said.

Trump has left little room to negotiate an off-ramp with China, short of that country capitulating — which would be anathema to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“Xi will not be forced into a call,” said Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center. Only once in recent history, she noted, has a Chinese leader phoned the United States without invitation — after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The trade tensions, if unchecked, could spill into other domains, she warned.

Craig Singleton, the senior China fellow at another Washington-based think tank, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, agreed that a phone call from Beijing is “unlikely in this climate.”

“Each side believes time is on its side, which raises the risk that neither moves to de-escalate until real damage is done,” he said. “This is no longer about tariffs alone. It’s a test of wills.”

Both sides have their calculations

Before Trump’s announcement, Bessent called it “unfortunate that the Chinese actually don’t want to come and negotiate.”

“And I can tell you that this escalation is a loser for them,” Bessent said on Fox Business Network’s “Morning with Maria” on Wednesday. “Their exports to the U.S. are five times our exports to China. So, they can raise their tariffs. But, so what?”

China has its own calculations. Its leadership, overseeing the world’s second-largest economy, has vowed not to surrender to U.S. bullying.

While Trump’s higher-than-expected tariffs caught other countries by surprise, China says it has been prepared, having learned a lesson from its previous tariff dealings during Trump’s first term. In response to Trump’s several rounds of tariff raises, Beijing has responded swiftly each time with a package of tariff and non-tariff measures.

“We have been in a trade war with the United States for eight years and have accumulated rich struggle experience,” said an editorial by the ruling party’s flagship newspaper People’s Daily, dated Monday. The newspaper assured the Chinese public that “the sky will not fall.”

“Facing the impact of U.S. tariff bullying, we possess strong resilience,” the party newspaper said, citing the country’s reduced dependence on exports to the U.S. market and new measures to boost domestic consumption.

Since Trump imposed his first round of tariffs on China in 2018, Beijing’s leaders have developed a toolkit of tariffs, import curbs, export controls, sanctions, regulatory reviews and measures to limit companies from doing business in China. All are designed to inflict pain on the U.S. economy and businesses in response to any trade move by the U.S. government.

Melanie Hart, senior director of the Global China Hub at the Atlantic Council, said Beijing is now “throwing the entire toolkit against” the United States, blacklisting companies, hitting American farmers and cutting the nation off from critical minerals.

“They have a bunker that they’ve been building for this moment,” Hart said. “They’re in the bunker. And if I’m Xi Jinping, I’m feeling a lot more comfortable than Donald Trump today.”

But People’s Daily also made it clear that Beijing remains open to talks. “Faced with volatility and extreme pressure from the United States,” it said, “we have not closed the door to negotiations.”

The country’s official Xinhua News Agency, in an editorial, insisted as well that China doesn’t want a trade war — but can fight one.

“There are no winners in a trade war,” it said. “But China is not afraid of a trade war.”

It all started when writer and actor Tina Fey picked up a copy of “Queen Bees & Wannabes,” Rosalind Wiseman’s guide for parents of teenage girls, which offered advice on how to help daughters navigate the pressures of high school. Fey saw in it the seeds of satire, so she wrote a screenplay that became “Mean Girls,” a big hit when it came out in 2004.

Late last decade, Fey and her composer husband, Jeff Richmond, adapted it into a Broadway musical, and a touring production is spending the week in St. Paul at the Ordway Music Theater. Judging from the volume of pink clothing (a key element in the film) and the relatively youthful audience at Tuesday’s opening night, this show may provide the sense of belonging that the characters seek in “Mean Girls.” But I found myself wondering if this was particularly healthy.

For perhaps the winking sense that this is a send-up has been lost somewhere along the way. If you build a show around stereotypes and tropes, when do audiences start seeing reality through that lens and placing kids in categories just as rigid and confining as what’s portrayed in “Mean Girls”? In other words, when does life start imitating art?

Granted, “Mean Girls” makes clear that this is “A Cautionary Tale” that’s intended as a warning about the behavior in which our protagonist, Cady, engages. Fresh from being home-schooled on the Serengeti, she enters a suburban Chicago high school and finds that the law of the jungle rules. She soon gets caught up in cliques, crushes, betrayals and other traditional teenage rites of passage, including the cliche of a climactic competition.

And there’s much to recommend this production, which features some strong voices, fine characterizations and eye-catching choreography (even if most of it is variations on the same limited movement vocabulary). And the eight-piece band does fine things with Richmond’s score, which, alas, is similarly unvarying in style and structure.

Cast members of “Mean Girls,” the touring Broadway musical playing at the Ordway. (Photo by Jeremy Daniel / Courtesy of The Ordway)

Perhaps the best thing about “Mean Girls” is Fey’s clever script and the witty lyrics of Nell Benjamin. But I can’t say for sure because the sound was so muddy on opening night that I felt as if I missed fully half of what was said and sung. And maybe the performers are at a point in the tour when the whole enterprise has become wearying, for Tuesday’s performance lacked the spark of youthful energy needed to sell a high school musical, save for the bouncy hip-hop fest that is the party anthem, “Whose House in This?”.

That’s one of the lone memorable songs. “Apex Predator” should be one of them, but it came off as more dirge than driving rocker, while “Where Do You Belong?” and “Stop” are enjoyable but incongruous throwbacks to vintage musicals.

For a show about asserting dominance, it’s interesting that this production’s most memorable performances come from secondary characters, such as the queen bee Regina’s support network of girls consumed with insecurity (Kristen Amanda Smith) and clinging to the vacuous stereotype of the dumb blonde, but nevertheless making her likable (MaryRose Brendel). And Kristen Seggio deserves props for pulling triple duty as two mothers and the empowering math teacher who helps Cady find new purpose.

‘Mean Girls’

When: 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sat., 1:30 and 7 p.m. Sun.

Where: Ordway Music Theater, 345 Washington St., St. Paul

Tickets: $160-$45, available at 651-224-4222 or ordway.org

Capsule: Muddy sound and low energy bring down what could be a sparkling satire.

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You know, I don’t think lunch gets enough love as an important meal. And lunch-dessert, itself a vital part of any worthwhile dining day, gets even less.

So let’s change that.

This week, in search of mouthwatering midday meals, I visited a newly opened restaurant, a longtime staple under new ownership and a place that’s been in business for a bit but new to our side of the river.

Jamaican lunch in South St. Paul

The brick building housing D&G Jamaican Restaurant in South St. Paul — which, as of its opening earlier this year, is the first Jamaican spot in the southeast metro — is a full split-level, so you head up a few stairs to reach the dining room. It almost feels like you’re on an island.

For the most part, the menu is Jamaican classics: braised oxtails, curry goat, jerk chicken. The jerk seasoning on the bone-in chicken is great; the meat is tender and tangy and warms you up without setting your mouth on fire (unless you’re into that, in which case several sauces, both housemade and bottled, are available). Meals come with rice and beans, a crisp sauteed slaw and plantains that are sweet enough to cut the spice but, pleasantly, more starchy than syrupy. And D&G is taking its jerk chicken in creative twists and turns, too, with dishes like jerk chicken tacos and “Rasta pasta’ in a rich cream sauce.

Oh, and the ginger beer is serious business, folks. Juicy and plenty spicy from good ginger, it’ll knock you back on your seat. If you have to take small sips, that’s OK: The portions here are pretty big, so you can pace yourself.

D&G Jamaican Restaurant: 1025 Southview Blvd., South St. Paul; 651-666-3346

The Greek gyro salad (foreground) and grilled cheese with tomato soup (background) are among the menu items offered at The Main Cafe in Stillwater on March 31. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

Homestyle lunch in downtown Stillwater

As you might expect given this restaurant’s name (The Main Cafe) and its location (Main Street), it’s been a mainstay in downtown Stillwater for decades. In November, after 35 years running the Main Cafe, Samy and Fifi Youssef retired and sold the place to former employee Casie Beltran. And while Beltran may have some creative daily specials up her sleeve for the future, delightfully, the no-frills diner continues to chug along just as it always has.

The cafe is best known for its breakfast, but don’t forget about the lunch menu. The soup of the day on a recent Monday was tomato, a hearty and nicely peppered soup that naturally called out for a buttery grilled cheese. We obliged, of course. I also ordered the Greek gyro salad; the meat was perhaps over-crisped but the warm pita alongside the salad was a thoughtful touch. And with fair prices for these days (just over $30 for two), it’s hard not to be happy here.

The Main Cafe: 108 S. Main St., Stillwater; 651-430-2319; themaincafemn.com

Cookies on Grand Avenue

From left to right, the buckeye cookie, a goat cheese and raspberry jam cookie, a s’mores cookie and a Nutella and sea salt cookie are among the varieties sold April 4 at Baking Betty’s, which relocated to Grand Avenue late last year. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

You might recognize Baking Betty’s from the Mall of America, the home of the cookie bakery from 2019 until early last year. But just before the holiday season, Baking Betty’s moved over to Grand Avenue, by Macalester College. Founder Emily Osterberg makes a variety of clever cookies, from sprinkled “circus animal” to goat cheese and raspberry jam. Classic Midwestern peanut butter buckeyes are elevated by being attached to a good chocolate cookie (or so I hear, from my trusty non-peanut-allergic girlfriend), and I can personally vouch for the Nutella-filled cookie topped with sea salt. But go early: Some favorite flavors (like chocolate chip, on a recent Friday afternoon) sell out.

Baking Betty’s: 1700 Grand Ave.; 612-900-5587; bakingbettys.com

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Whether you need advice on tree care, are looking for closet solutions or on the hunt for your next home improvement project, odds are you’ll find inspiration in Apple Valley this weekend.

Hosted by the Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce, the city’s 24th Home & Garden Expo takes place Saturday and admission is free, according to an advisory from the chamber.

The event will feature more than 120 vendor booths, grilled food from the Boy Scouts, Culver’s custard, face-painting, inflatables and 10 booths with city officials who will answer questions and hear concerns, according to the chamber.

Bobby Jensen, a local gardening expert and co-host of KARE 11’s “Grow with KARE,” will host a free seminar titled, “These Aren’t Your Grandma’s Hydrangeas,” at noon.

“Apple Valley does it right. A spectacular show and something about their show’s size and timing that everyone is buying,” Jensen said in the release.

The event, which starts at 9 a.m. at Eastview High School, is expected to bring in 6,000 visitors. The expo is the city’s second-largest event, just behind the Fourth of July parade.

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