China Is
Considering Trade Talks With U.S., but It Has Conditions
Despite
mounting financial pressure, China says it won’t negotiate until the Trump
administration shows “sincerity” by canceling tariffs on its goods.
By David
Pierson and Joy Dong
Reporting
from Hong Kong
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/02/world/asia/china-us-tariffs-talks.html
May 2, 2025,
12:38 a.m. ET
In a
potential softening of the bruising trade war between China and the United
States, Beijing said on Friday that it was considering holding talks with the
Trump administration after repeated attempts by senior U.S. officials to start
negotiations.
China’s
Commerce Ministry said in a statement that China was “evaluating” the U.S.
offer to talk, but it said Beijing’s position remained consistent: It will only
engage in negotiations if Washington cancels its tariffs on Chinese goods
first.
“If the
United States does not correct its wrong unilateral tariff measures, it means
that the United States has no sincerity at all and will further damage the
mutual trust between the two sides,” the ministry said.
China’s
signaling about its willingness to talk comes as the tariffs appear to have
already taken a toll on Chinese producers. An official report on manufacturing
activity in April showed that factories in China had experienced their sharpest
monthly slowdown in more than a year.
The two
countries have been sparring since President Trump ratcheted up tariffs on
Chinese goods to a minimum of 145 percent last month, while omitting China from
a 90-day pause on his tariffs that he granted to all other countries. China has
responded with its own sky-high tariffs on U.S. goods, while blocking some
American companies from doing business in China and restricting exports of
critical minerals that U.S. manufacturers rely on to make things like
semiconductors, drones and cars.
The clash,
which has doubled as a battle of wills between Mr. Trump and China’s top
leader, Xi Jinping, has shaken global markets and accelerated a decoupling of
the world’s two largest economies.
Many
countries are under growing pressure to pick sides, with the Trump
administration pressuring U.S. trading partners to restrict access to Chinese
exports and Beijing threatening countermeasures against countries that comply.
It is
unclear which officials from the United States and China have been in contact
about setting up negotiations. Analysts have said that the two sides have
different approaches to such talks. Mr. Trump would prefer to take the lead and
speak directly to Mr. Xi, but China’s officials tend to prefer to negotiate
details — and hash out a deal — in advance, before the leaders meet.
“We know
that China and the United States have contacts at the working level,” said Wu
Xinbo, the dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University
in Shanghai. “The key now is that China hopes that the United States will give
a clear signal that it is sincere in negotiating, and then it can move from
this kind of working contact to formal negotiations. China has kicked the ball
to the United States.”
Complicating
matters is Chinese officials’ concern that Mr. Trump could reverse a deal on a
whim or even embarrass Mr. Xi in a confrontation, similar to how President
Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was treated during a visit to the White House in
February.
Faced with
the specter of a protracted trade fight, Chinese state propaganda has kicked
into high gear, girding the country for a “struggle” and calling on people not
to bow to U.S. pressure.
Beijing has
been betting that the Trump administration will eventually relent because of
mounting political and financial pressure in the United States. Recent polls
show that most Americans are unhappy about Mr. Trump’s handling of the U.S.
economy, which shrank in the first quarter after posting strong growth at the
end of last year.
In an
acknowledgment of America’s dependence on Chinese manufacturing, the Trump
administration exempted Chinese smartphones, computers, semiconductors and
other electronics from reciprocal tariffs, though that move could be temporary.
And on Tuesday, Mr. Trump signed two executive orders walking back some tariffs
on carmakers.
China, too,
appears to be considering exempting some categories from its 125 percent
tariffs on American goods, including certain semiconductors, lifesaving drugs
and other health-care products.
Mr. Xi’s
room to maneuver is somewhat limited by his nationalistic image and a need to
be seen as defying what Beijing has characterized as U.S. bullying. He is also
constrained by weakness in the Chinese economy, which has been hampered by a
property crisis and poor consumer confidence. While the United States
represents a shrinking share of China’s overall exports, it remains the single
largest market at just under 15 percent.
And because
of growing frustration in many countries about a flood of cheap Chinese
exports, goods from China that ordinarily would have gone to the United States
cannot easily be diverted to other countries.
It is
unclear what sort of trade deal would satisfy both Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi. China
ran a nearly $300 billion trade surplus with the United States last year, a
massive gap that would be hard to close. A trade deal aimed at addressing the
imbalance, which was negotiated with China during the first Trump
administration, petered out, partly because of the Covid pandemic.
David
Pierson covers Chinese foreign policy and China’s economic and cultural
engagement with the world. He has been a journalist for more than two decades.
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