AsianFin -- The Trump administration on Sunday appeared to soften tones on China and expressed their openness to a deal to resolve the fresh trade disputes between the world’s top two economies.
Credit：Freepik
U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Chinese leader Xi Jinping could not choose to escalate the U.S.-China trade tension since the trade war would hurt his country. “Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine! Highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment. He doesn’t want Depression for his country, and neither do I. The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!! “ Trump posted on his social media Truth Social on Sunday.
Earlier Sunday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance in an interview urged Beijing to choose a “reasonable” path. "We're going to find out a lot in the weeks to come about whether China wants to start a trade war with us, or whether they actually want to be reasonable. I hope they choose the path of reason," Vance told Fox News on Sunday.
Vance acknowledged the government is required to carefully handle the delicate bilateral trade relationship while claiming Washington holds more leverage than China in escalating trade tensions. "It's going to be a delicate dance," Vance said. "A lot of it is going to depend on how the Chinese respond. If they respond in a highly aggressive manner, I guarantee you, the president of the United States has far more cards than the People's Republic of China."
Vance said Trump "appreciates the friendship that he's developed” with Chinese counterpart Xi and they "have a good relationship," but noting everyone was "shocked" by China's actions. He also said the Trump administration hopes not have to use its leverage. "What the United States has is we have a lot of leverage, and my hope, and I know the president's hope, is that we don't have to use that leverage," he said.
Vance stressed Washington seeks positive relations with China "but not if the Chinese go down this pathway of cutting off the entire world from access to some of the goods that they produce."
Trump on Friday warned he would slap 100% tariffs and software export curbs on China. The United States will impose an additional 100% Tariff on Chinese imports, starting on November 1 or sooner, depending on any further actions or changes taken by China, and export controls on “any and all critical software” will go into effect on November 1, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Trump described the levies and export controls as retaliatory ones, pointing out in the post that China is going to “impose large scale Export Controls on virtually every product they make, and some not even made by them, effective on November 1., which is “absolutely unheard of in International Trade.” “It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History,” he wrote.
In another post on Friday,Trump threatened to cancel his planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” Trump wrote. The president on September 19 disclosed he agreed with Xi during a phone call that day that two leaders would meet at the APEC annual meeting in South Korea from October 31 to November 1.
However, Trump later Friday denied the planned meeting with Xi had been dropped. “But I don’t know that we’re going to have it,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’m going to be there regardless, so I would assume we might have it.”
Trump also hinted there may be time to ratchet down his new tariff threat. “We’re going to have to see what happens. That’s why I made it Nov. 1,” he said.
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