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China has called on the US to “completely cancel all unilateral tariff measures” if it wants trade talks, in some of Beijing’s strongest comments on the impasse between the world’s two economic superpowers.
Beijing on Thursday also said there were “currently no economic and trade negotiations between China and the United States”, despite recent signs of softening from Washington.
US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has said in recent days that the trade war is “not sustainable” and “there would have to be a de-escalation by both sides”.
“The unilateral tariff measures were initiated by the US,” said He Yadong, a Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson. “If the US truly wants to solve the problem, it should . . . completely cancel all unilateral tariff measures against China and find a way to resolve differences through equal dialogue.”
Beijing has maintained that the US must make the first move to de-escalate the crisis, which is threatening to spark a hard decoupling between the two countries’ economies.
China has consistently said that its “door is open” to talks, but an insistence that the US first unilaterally remove its tariffs as a precondition for negotiations would represent a hardening of its stance.
In a tit-for-tat escalation, US President Donald Trump this month slapped additional tariffs on China of 145 per cent and Beijing responded with 125 per cent — levies that Bessent on Tuesday said amounted to an “embargo”.
Trump has since begun to soften some of the measures, granting exemptions for smartphones, semiconductors and electronics and claiming the US and China were in direct contact “every day”.
On Tuesday, the president said tariffs would come down “substantially” and a deal would be done “pretty quickly”.
But the Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday said any reports that China and the US were nearing a deal were “fake news”.
“There have been no consultations or negotiations between China and the United States regarding tariffs, let alone reaching an agreement,” said ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun.
He Yadong said “he who tied the bell [on the tiger] should be the one to untie it”, a reference to a Chinese proverb that means the person who creates a problem should be the one to solve it.
He said Beijing had maintained “an open attitude towards consultations and dialogue”, but “pressuring, threatening and extorting are not the correct ways to engage with China”.
“The trade war is one that the US has unilaterally instigated . . . if they want to negotiate, they must show sincerity and return to the correct path of equal dialogue and consultations,” He Yadong said.
Bessent said on Tuesday that any de-escalation of the trade war would have to be mutual, denying reports that Trump might unilaterally cut levies on Chinese goods.
Chinese analysts argue that the US imposition of high tariffs makes it difficult for Beijing to find a way to defuse the crisis.
They say that China’s President Xi Jinping would find it difficult to engage personally with Trump on the trade war unless this was preceded by extensive negotiations to hammer out a deal.
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