Beijing has hit back after the US vice-president, JD Vance, referred to “Chinese peasants” in an interview defending Donald Trump’s tariffs. Speaking to Fox News last week, Vance asked: “What has the globalist economy gotten the United States of America? And the answer is, fundamentally, it’s based on two principles – incurring a huge amount of debt to buy things that other countries make for us. “To make it a little more crystal clear, we borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.” He added: “That is not a recipe for economic prosperity, it is...