Trade war: China has a $3.65 trillion war chest to counter US tariffs

President Donald Trump’s call for the Federal Reserve to mirror its Chinese counterpart misses the mark because Beijing’s main defense against trade-war fallout will come from the finance ministry, not the central bank.

If tariffs begin to really hurt China’s growth this year, there’s plenty of direct fiscal firepower left to stoke the economy, before the People’s Bank of China would have to cut interest rates. Data released Wednesday showed an across-the-board slowdown in April.

Central and local authorities in China have at least 25.1 trillion yuan ($3.65 trillion) unspent in their budgets this year, according to data compiled by