Beijing is exploiting the uncertainty created by Trump to try to stitch China’s vast manufacturing base into the world’s biggest economic blocs, including the European Union, Gulf States and a trans-Pacific trade pact, a Reuters examination found. The push involves accelerating efforts to clinch some 20 trade deals in total, many years in the making, despite widespread concerns about China’s overproduction, uneven market access and soft domestic demand.

A Reuters review of 100 Chinese-language articles by state-backed trade scholars written since 2017 reveals a systematic push by China’s policy advisers to reverse-engineer U.S. trade policy and neutralize Washington’s containment strategy.

China is now putting that blueprint into action. The deal reached with Canada during Prime Minister Mark Carney’s January visit to Beijing — which slashes tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles — was the first of many aimed at breaking U.S. leverage, according to interviews with 10 people, including Chinese officials and trade diplomats.

“Don’t interrupt your opponent when he is making a mistake,” said one Chinese official of Trump’s disruptive trade agenda.

The review, drawn from over 2,000 trade-strategy papers endorsed by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and Peking University, which advise top leaders, shows policy insiders broadly accept that painful structural change is a price worth paying for China’s long-term dominance of global commerce. The papers’ contents are reported here for the first time.

If successful, Beijing could upend more than a decade of U.S. trade policy by placing itself at the heart of a new, China-shaped multilateral order, two Western diplomats said.

“The Chinese have a golden opportunity now,” said Alicia Garcia Herrero, senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank.

China’s commerce ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment about Beijing’s strategy.

Asked about China’s approach, a U.S. official told Reuters it was no surprise that countries with large trade surpluses sought to maintain globalization.

“President Trump is fixing the problems globalization caused for the United States while other countries are trying to double down on globalization as free market access to the United States goes away,” the official said.

Building blocs

The shift in China’s tone reflects its calculations. A year ago, Beijing was invoking Mao Zedong and its ability to fend off the West in the Korean War with martial propaganda.

Now, as China prepares to welcome Trump in April, its diplomats are touring the world urging trading partners to join it in defending multilateralism and open trade.

In January, China dispatched its top diplomat to tiny Lesotho — which Trump initially hit with a 50 per cent tariff — to pledge development cooperation. On Saturday, state media said China would implement zero tariffs on imports from 53 African countries. Meanwhile, China is pitching AI-powered customs systems to neighbours and working to retool digital infrastructure that underpin commerce.

The moves underline a goal identified in the policy papers: to embed China so deeply in global trade that partners can’t afford to decouple under U.S. pressure.

“In countering U.S. strategic competition with China, ‘anti-decoupling’ should become China’s primary focus,” wrote Ni Feng, fellow at CASS’s Institute of American Studies, in 2024.

Chinese officials are now working to fast-track stalled trade talks. Since 2017, China has been negotiating with countries including Honduras, Panama, Peru, South Korea and Switzerland.

“We are willing to negotiate bilateral and regional trade and investment agreements with interested countries and regions,” commerce ministry spokesperson He Yongqian told Reuters during Carney’s visit, without elaborating.

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi surprised European negotiators in November by raising the prospect of a free trade agreement with Brussels during talks with his Estonian counterpart.

A month later, Wang pressed the Gulf Cooperation Council to conclude long-running talks on a free trade agreement. In January, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer agreed with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to launch a feasibility study into a trade-in-services agreement that could reduce barriers for British firms. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said he will seek “strategic partnerships” with China during a trip next week.

China’s commerce minister Wang Wentao has made joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) a priority. The pact has its roots in the U.S.-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership, developed in part to counter China before Washington withdrew in 2017.

But China’s huge trade surplus complicates the pitch. Some member countries worry Chinese manufacturers may use improved market access to funnel excess low-cost goods abroad, while China’s domestic demand remains sluggish.

Wendy Cutler, chief negotiator during the Obama administration for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, acknowledged the window for Beijing to champion trade and multilateralism but said China needed to go beyond talk.

“And with its huge trade imbalances, as well as some of the coercive measures it’s now taking against countries like Japan, it’s hard to see how they’re walking the walk,” Cutler told Reuters.

A senior European trade diplomat dismissed Beijing’s overtures as “pure Chinese propaganda,” saying Brussels had no plans for a trade deal.

Chinese advisers are undeterred. Speaking to Reuters, one noted the EU and China had negotiated a landmark 2020 investment deal during Trump’s first term. The deal, however, was frozen in 2021 before it could take effect amid a dispute over human rights sanctions.

Lessons learned

Some Chinese advisers contend in the papers that Beijing should study how Washington has “weaponized” global institutions to contain China, and exploit openings created by Trump’s willingness to abandon or sideline multilateral bodies such as the World Trade Organization.

Others argue Beijing should focus on influencing global standards in fields such as intellectual property through initiatives like Xi’s Belt and Road program and China’s membership of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which covers about 30 per cent of global GDP.

China is now applying those insights.

Its recently upgraded deal with Southeast Asian states, for example, focuses on AI-driven and digital trade, where China hopes to secure a first-mover advantage.

Indeed, China’s vision for customs processing is evident at its “Friendship Port” on the Vietnamese border, where state media says home-grown AI solutions have slashed waiting times by 20 per cent, enabling faster deliveries. Reuters couldn’t independently verify the claim.

Trillion-dollar surplus

The risks that China’s $1.2 trillion trade surplus poses to trading partners’ manufacturing sectors are hard to overlook, however.

Pascal Lamy, former WTO director-general and EU trade commissioner, said Chinese firms are sending more goods to Europe than the bloc can absorb.

“It’s a mystery how, given the nature of the regime, given the sort of collective cleverness, how is it that they have not succeeded in re-balancing their economic model?” he said.

Not everyone sees closer ties with China as the easiest way to curb reliance on the U.S.

Stephen Nagy, China project lead at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, said Carney’s tariff-cutting agreement with Xi appears designed to build leverage before talks over the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade deal.

“I think his bet is wrong,” he added, predicting that Trump wouldn’t be swayed.

Carney has said Canada respects its USMCA commitment not to pursue free trade deals with non-market economies. His office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Mexico, for its part, is wary of endangering U.S. market access by moving too close to China.

“We see no need for a free trade agreement with China right now,” said a Mexican trade official. “We are already in the CPTPP and have 60 per cent of world GDP covered.”

Beijing’s trade partners really need China to revive its consumption, said Fred Neumann, chief economist for Asia Pacific at HSBC.

Wang, China’s commerce minister, has said growing imports is a priority as Beijing prepares to launch its next five-year plan in March, in line with a commitment to raise consumption’s share of GDP.

But re-balancing is a long-term project. Trump has three years left in office, and the next administration could revert to building coalitions to contain China.

China must “study in depth the logic of U.S. actions within international institutions and the possible next steps it may take to better respond to increasingly fierce strategic offensives in the future,” Zhao Pu, then at Renmin University and now a researcher at CASS’s Institute of American Studies, wrote in 2023.

— Additional reporting by Casey Hall in Shanghai and Andrea Shalal in Washington

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The tariff commission of the State Council, or cabinet, will scrap duties of up to 15 per cent imposed on some U.S. agricultural goods from November 10, while keeping levies of 10 per cent introduced in response to President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” duties.

Investors relieved

Investors on both sides of the Pacific were relieved when Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, easing fears that the world’s two largest economies might abandon talks to resolve a tariff war that has disrupted global supply chains.

Trump and the White House were quick to issue their take on the meeting, but the Chinese side did not immediately give a detailed summary of what it had agreed.

“Broadly, it’s a great sign that the two sides are making rapid progress in putting the deal into effect,” said Even Rogers Pay, a director at Beijing-based Trivium China.

“It shows they’re aligned and that the agreement is likely to hold up.”

The tariff cut nonetheless leaves Chinese buyers of U.S. soybeans facing tariffs of 13 per cent, a cost traders said makes U.S. shipments still too expensive for commercial buyers, compared to Brazilian alternatives.

“We don’t expect any demand from China to return to the U.S. market with this change,” said one trader at an international trading company. “Brazil is cheaper than the United States and even non-Chinese buyers are taking Brazilian cargoes.”

After the meeting, the White House said China would purchase at least 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans in the last two months of 2025 and at least 25 million tons in each of the next three years.

Beijing has yet to confirm those figures, and traders are watching closely for signs of large-scale purchases.

Cheaper Brazilian beans

Chinese importers recently bought 20 cargoes of cheaper Brazilian soybeans as South American prices eased on expectations of a resumption of U.S. sales to the world’s largest soybean importer.

Brazilian soybeans for December shipment are quoted at a premium of $2.25 to $2.30 (C$3.18 to $3.25) over the January Chicago contract SF26, compared with $2.40 a bushel being offered for U.S. beans shipped from the U.S. Gulf Coast, traders said.

Before last week’s meeting, state trader COFCO made China’s first purchases from this year’s U.S. harvest, an act analysts saw as a goodwill gesture.

In 2024, China bought roughly 20 per cent of its soybeans from the United States, down from 41 per cent in 2016, the year before Trump’s first presidential term, customs data showed.

Important agricultural trade partners

This year, China has largely shunned U.S. crops from the autumn harvest due to high tariffs, costing American farmers billions of dollars in lost exports.

In a meeting with a U.S. agricultural trade delegation on Tuesday, China’s senior trade negotiator Li Chenggang attributed “fluctuations” in agricultural trade between the two countries to U.S. tariffs, a summary of the meeting issued by China’s commerce ministry showed.

China and the United States are “important agricultural trade partners”, Li said, adding that he hoped Washington could work with Beijing to create favourable conditions for cooperation.

China’s cabinet said it would also suspend for one year the 24 per cent additional tariffs it imposed on U.S. goods in April.

China will also remove or suspend for a year some non-tariff retaliatory measures, including export control measures announced in March and April against some U.S. entities, the commerce ministry said on Wednesday.

— Reporting by Joe Cash, Ethan Wang and Ella Cao in Beijing, and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.

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On Wednesday, prior to Trump’s announcement, the EU said it would place duties on a range of U.S. imports from next Tuesday in response specifically to U.S. metals tariffs. The bloc was still assessing how to respond to the car and broader levies.

The U.S. imports included corn, wheat, barley, rice, motorcycles, poultry, fruit, wood, clothing and dental floss, according to a document seen by Reuters. They totaled about 21 billion euros (C$32.8 billion) last year.

“We want to give negotiations a chance,” von der Leyen said on X. “While finalizing the adoption of the EU countermeasures that saw strong support from our Member States, we will put them on hold for 90 days.”

Trump’s move was an important step towards stabilizing the global economy, von der Leyen said. But she warned that counter-tariffs could be reinstated if necessary.

“If negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will kick in. Preparatory work on further countermeasures continues,” she said, before adding: “As I have said before, all options remain on the table.”

Trump administration weighing offers

The Trump administration is weighing offers from more than a dozen countries on tariff deals and is close to reaching agreements with some of them, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said.

“USTR has informed us that there are maybe 15 countries now that have made explicit offers that we’re studying and considering and deciding whether they’re good enough to present the president,” Hassett told reporters at the White House, referring to the U.S. trade representative.

Principals in the administration’s trade policy will meet at the White House on Thursday to discuss how to prioritize the separate negotiations, Hassett said.

Trump’s sudden decision on Wednesday to pause most of his hefty new duties brought relief to battered markets and anxious global leaders, even as he ratcheted up a trade war with China.

His turnabout, which came less than 24 hours after steep new tariffs kicked in, followed the most intense episode of financial market volatility since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. stock indexes shot higher on the news, and the relief continued into Asian and European trading on Thursday.

Before Trump’s U-turn, the upheaval had erased trillions of dollars from stock markets and led to an unsettling surge in U.S. government bond yields that appeared to catch Trump’s attention.

Trump kept the pressure on China, the second-biggest provider of U.S. imports, with an increase of tariffs on Chinese imports to 125 per cent from the 104 per cent level that kicked in on Wednesday.

He also signed an executive order aimed at reducing China’s grip on the global shipping industry and at reviving U.S. shipbuilding.

Trade war with China

China rejected what it called threats and blackmail from Washington.

China will “follow through to the end” if the U.S. persists, Commerce Ministry spokesperson He Yongqian told a regular press briefing. China’s door was open to dialogue, but this must be based on mutual respect, the ministry said.

Beijing may again respond in kind after already imposing 84 per cent tariffs on U.S. imports on Wednesday to match Trump’s earlier salvo.

Trump, who claims the tariffs aim to fix U.S. trade imbalances, said a resolution with China on trade is also possible. But officials have said they will prioritize talks with other countries as Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and others line up to try and strike a bargain.

China’s yuan hit its lowest against the dollar on Thursday since the global financial crisis.

Trump’s reversal on tariffs is not absolute. A 10 per cent blanket duty on almost all U.S. imports will remain in effect, the White House said. The announcement also does not appear to affect duties on autos, steel and aluminum.

The U.S. tariff pause does not apply to duties paid by Canada and Mexico, because their goods are still subject to 25 per cent fentanyl-related tariffs unless they comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement’s rules of origin.

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The levies, announced by the commerce ministry and scheduled to take effect on March 20, match the 100 per cent and 25 per cent import duties Canada slapped on China-made electric vehicles and steel and aluminum products just over four months ago.

By excluding canola, which was one of Canada’s top exports to the world’s No.1 agricultural importer prior to China investigating it for anti-dumping last year, Beijing may be keeping the door open for trade talks.

Tariffs a warning shot

But the tariffs also serve as a warning shot, analysts say, with the Trump administration having signaled it could ease 25 per cent import levies the White House is threatening Canada and Mexico with if they apply the same extra 20 per cent duty he has slapped on Chinese goods over fentanyl flows.

“Canada’s measures seriously violate World Trade Organization rules, constitute a typical act of protectionism and are discriminatory measures that severely harm China’s legitimate rights and interests,” the commerce ministry said in a statement.

China will apply a 100 per cent tariff to just over C$1.44 billion of Canadian rapeseed oil, oil cakes and pea imports, and a 25 per cent duty on C$2.31 billion worth of Canadian aquatic products and pork.

“The timing may serve as a warning shot,” said Dan Wang, China director at Eurasia Group in Singapore. “By striking now, China reminds Canada of the cost of aligning too closely with American trade policy.”

“China’s delayed response (to Ottawa’s October tariffs) likely reflects both capacity constraints and strategic signaling,” she added. “The commerce ministry is stretched thin, juggling trade disputes with the U.S. and European Union.”

“Canada, a lower priority, had to wait its turn.”

The Canadian embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Canola investigation ongoing

Then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in August that Ottawa was imposing the levies to counter what he called China’s intentional state-directed policy of over-capacity, following the lead of the United States and European Union, both of which have also applied import levies to Chinese-made EVs.

In response, China in September launched an anti-dumping investigation into Canadian canola imports. More than half of Canada’s canola exports go to China and the trade was worth $3.7 billion in 2023, according to the Canola Council of Canada.

“The investigation on Canadian canola is still ongoing. That canola was not included in the list of tariffs this time might also be a gesture to leave room for negotiations,” said Rosa Wang, an analyst with agricultural consultancy JCI.

Beijing could also be hoping that a change in government in Ottawa makes it more amenable. Canada’s next national election must be held by October 20.

China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner, trailing far behind the United States. Canada exported C$67.76 billion worth of goods to the world’s second-largest economy in 2024, according to Chinese customs data.

Important pork market

China is Canada’s third-most important pork export market. It takes products for which Canada does not have easy alternate markets, said Cam Dahl, General Manager of the Manitoba Pork Council.

“The things we export to China, heads for example, are parts of the animal that don’t have easy other markets,” he said. “We can’t take that container that’s going to China and just ship it to Mexico.”

China is Canada’s number-two market for canola, said Chris Davison, president and CEO of the Canola Council of Canada.

“The (tariff) levels that are being talked about here are prohibitive levels, for sure. … The impacts will be felt across the industry,” he said, adding that he would like to see financial support from the government.

Canadian government spokespersons did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“To be honest I don’t understand why they are doing this one at all,” said Even Pay, agriculture analyst at Trivium China.

“I expect Beijing will use the election and change of leader as an opportunity to reset relations as they did with Australia,” she added.

China in 2020 introduced a series of tariffs, bans and other restrictions on key Australian exports, including barley, wine, beef, coal, lobster and timber in retaliation to Canberra calling for a COVID origins probe.

Beijing did not begin lifting the bans until 2023, one year after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ousted Scott Morrison, who had called for the inquiry.

—Additional reporting by Ella Cao, Anna Mehler Paperny and Ed White

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The potential blow of counter-tariffs on EU goods will fall mostly on states such as Spain, France and Italy that have voiced support for the EV duties, with pork, dairy and brandy exports to the world’s second-biggest economy at stake.

European Union members such as Germany, Finland and Sweden that have not pushed for the tariffs would feel less impact, with little exposure to the export items singled out by China.

China’s tactics appear to be working.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrapped up a China visit this week by sitting in a Chinese EV and saying it was an “honour”. He then unexpectedly urged the EU to reconsider its position.

According to a Spanish government source, Sanchez’s delegation came away feeling “Spain is more important now”, and that an agreement over tariffs on its pork products was close.

As a sweetener, a Chinese company agreed to build a $1 billion plant in Spain to make machinery used for hydrogen production, in apparent backing for Spain’s green ambitions.

With pork and dairy, China maximises the “domestic political cost” to the countries voting to impose EV tariffs, said Beijing-based economist Mei Xinyu, with the agricultural sector often playing a role in EU politics.

“These products count on China as one of their top export markets,” he said.

Pork, dairy and brandy exports from the EU to China totalled about $10 billion in 2023, although not all products in those categories would be subject to tariffs. The bloc’s exports to China last year totalled over $280 billion.

Crunch time

Still feeling the pinch of U.S. tariffs imposed during the Trump era, China does not want a trade war with the EU. But Beijing has made it clear it would fight if Brussels imposes additional EV tariffs of up to 35.3 per cent.

China-made EVs exported to Europe rose 38 per cent in 2023 to 656,000 units, including shipments non-EU countries. Europe accounted for more than 40 per cent of EVs shipped out of China last year, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the China Passenger Car Association.

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao will visit Europe next week and hold talks with EU trade chief, Valdis Dombrovskis.

Wang will also visit Italy, which supports the EV tariffs while also seeking Chinese investment to build EV production capacity.

China needs at least 15 EU members representing 65 per cent of the EU population to oppose the tariffs at a vote in October.

But positions within the EU remain diverse. Some smaller states are keeping their heads down. Others are prioritising ties closer to home.

“Ireland’s exports to China are only a small fraction (of its exports), so Ireland will prioritise the EU market and relationship over China,” said an Irish trade representative in China, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“China is still important, but business with China is hard and not growing as well as expected.”

Ireland is the fifth most exposed EU producer in China’s dairy investigation and sixth worst off in its pork probe.

‘Shock and awe’

In contrast, China appears to allow no room for negotiations or concessions with Canada, hitting it on Monday with a retaliatory probe into its rapeseed (canola) exports after Ottawa introduced a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese EVs in August.

Unlike with Brussels, Beijing gave Ottawa no public prior warning of how it might hit back, signals often conveyed in Chinese state media such as Global Times.

He Yongqian, a Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson, said “relevant evidence shows Canada’s rapeseed exports to China have been dumped and caused substantial damage to domestic industry,” when asked to explain the difference in approach.

The Canadian embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On the contrary, Beijing has clearly been open to negotiation with the EU, said Even Pay, an analyst at Beijing-based Trivium China who specialises in agriculture.

“With Canada, they went straight for shock and awe,” Pay said.

—Additional reporting for Reuters by Belen Carreno in Madrid and Beijing Newsroom.

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Beijing announced the move on Wednesday, a day after the EU published a revised tariff plan for China-made electric vehicles (EVs).

Here are the main issues:

Why is China taking action?

Beijing is assessing whether EU dairy imports are benefiting from subsidies. Its probe comes as the EU evaluates a plan to impose tariffs of up to 36.3 per cent on imported Chinese-made EVs subject to a vote in October.

France, Italy and Spain backed the proposed tariffs in July, while Germany, Finland and Sweden abstained, government sources have said.

What countries are most at risk?

France stands to be worst affected as it exported $211 million (C$287.1 million) worth of the targeted dairy products last year, Chinese customs data showed, mostly milk and cream.

Italian, Danish, Dutch and Spanish farmers last year sold dairy goods subject to China’s new probe worth $65 million (C$88.4 million), $55 million (C$74.8 million), $52 million (C$70.8 million) and $49 million (C$66.7 million), respectively, the data showed.

EU exports of milk powder to China, worth $357 million (C$485.7 million) last year, are not subject to investigation.

France also supplied 99 per cent of China’s imported brandy last year as well as some of its pork, making it the most impacted country if Beijing acts on each of the investigations.

Paris has repeatedly voiced concerns about the surge in Chinese EVs into the European market and taken measures domestically to ensure that French subsidies for buying EVs do not benefit vehicles made in China.

Major pork exporters Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain are also under pressure from Beijing’s probes.

What might happen?

An anti-dumping investigation into imported European large-engine gasoline cars could be on the cards, according to the state-owned Global Times, which first reported that Beijing was considering the probes.

Such an investigation would hit Germany hardest. Its exports of vehicles with engines of 2.5 litres or larger to China were worth $1.2 billion last year, Chinese customs data shows.

—Additional reporting for Reuters by Leigh Thomas in Paris

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China has opened an investigation into EU pork and its by-products, a step that appears mainly aimed at Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, after the bloc imposed anti-subsidy duties on Chinese-made electric vehicles.

The investigation will focus on pork intended for human consumption, such as fresh, cold and frozen whole cuts, as well as pig intestines, bladders and stomachs.

It is expected to be completed by June 17, 2025, but could be extended by another six months if required.

“If, after preliminary investigation, it is determined that dumping has been established and has caused injury to domestic industry, provisional anti-dumping measures may be taken,” He Yadong, a commerce ministry spokesperson, said in response to reporters’ question about the probe.

Global food companies have been on high alert for retaliatory tariffs from China since the European Commission announced on June 12 it would impose anti-subsidy duties of up to 38.1 per cent on imported Chinese cars from July.

China imported $6 billion (C$8.2 billion) worth of pork, including offal, in 2023 and more than half of that came from the EU, according to Chinese customs data.

Spain is the biggest EU pork supplier to China, followed by the Netherlands, Denmark and France.

The measures could badly impact Europe because a large portion of the bloc’s pork shipments to China are pig ears, noses, feet and offal that are only rarely consumed by Europeans.

The Spanish pork sector is ready to pivot to other markets again, said Alberto Herranz, director of Spain’s pork producers’ association Interporc.

Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo told Reuters that a balance had to be found between promoting free commerce and protecting strategic interests.

“The same way we don’t want a trade war, we want to avoid a subsidy race. We must be able to find a point where we compete, but fairly,” he said.

China’s Commerce Ministry said the investigation was prompted by a complaint from the China Animal Husbandry Association on behalf of the domestic pork industry.

Traders and analysts have said Beijing could turn to pork suppliers in Russia, which started exporting pork to China in February, as well as Brazil, Argentina and the U.S. to replace European supplies.

“China’s domestic pig production capacity is sufficient and even if there are some gaps, it will quickly be supplemented by local supply,” an executive with a large Chinese pig farm said.

The world’s leading pig producer and consumer is also dealing with an oversupply of pigs that has weighed on domestic pork prices. Imports account for about five per cent of China’s total pork supply.

Governments typically place anti-dumping duties on imported goods to protect domestic firms when they suspect the goods in question are being sold for less than it cost to produce them.

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