China has denied any suggestion that it was in active negotiations with the administration of US President Donald Trump over tariffs, saying that any notion of progress in the matter was as groundless as “trying to catch the wind”.
China’s comments come after Trump said on Tuesday that things were going “fine with China” and that the final tariff rate on Chinese exports would come down “substantially” from the current 145 per cent.
Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said during a daily briefing that, “For all I know, China and the US are not having any consultation or negotiation on tariffs, still less reaching a deal.”
“China’s position is consistent, and we are open to consultations and dialogues, but any form of consultations and negotiations must be conducted on the basis of mutual respect and in an equal manner,” Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong said.
“Any claims about the progress of China-US trade negotiations are groundless as trying to catch the wind and have no factual basis,” the spokesman said.
Trump had told reporters earlier in the week that “everything’s active” when asked if he was engaging with China, although his treasury secretary had said there were no formal negotiations.
Asked about China denying there were any conversations ongoing with the United States, Trump said, “They had a meeting this morning,” before adding, “it doesn’t matter who they is.”
The US president, a Republican, has expressed interest in a way to climb down from his massive retaliatory tariffs on Chinese imports to the US.
There are mounting business and consumer concerns that the taxes will drive up inflation and potentially send the economy into a recession.
The Trump administration throughout yesterday continued to send mixed signals.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he had a “very successful bilateral meeting” with South Korea, indicating that the two countries could settle on the “technical terms” for an agreement as early as next week.
Yet within minutes of Bessent saying that, Trump fell back on his argument from Wednesday and said it would be “physically impossible” to go through negotiations with dozens of countries and “we are going to, at some point, just set prices for deals”.
“Some will be tariffed,” Trump said.
“Some treated us very unfairly. They’ll be tariffed higher than others.”
Trump had put 145 per cent tariffs on imports from China, while China hit back with 125 per cent tariffs on US products.
While Trump has given other countries a 90-day pause on the tariffs, as their leaders pledged to negotiate with the US, China remained the exception.
Instead, Beijing raised its own tariffs and deployed other economic measures in response while vowing to “fight to the end”.
For example, China restricted exports of rare earth minerals and raised multiple cases against the US at the World Trade Organisation.
China also made it clear that talks should involve the cancellation of all tariffs it currently faces.
“The unilateral tariff increase measures were initiated by the United States. If the United States really wants to solve the problem, it should face up to the rational voices of the international community and all parties at home, completely cancel all unilateral tariff measures against China, and find ways to resolve differences through equal dialogue,” said He, the Commerce Ministry spokesman.
Despite the economic measures levelled against China, Trump said Tuesday that he would be “very nice” and not play hardball with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“We’re going to live together very happily and ideally work together,” Trump said.
