"China doesn't need talks with the US" – Beijing lets Trump down in the tariff dispute

WELT "China doesn't need talks with the US" – Beijing lets Trump down in the tariff dispute 55 minutes • 2 minutes reading time Donald Trump has been asserting for weeks that China will sooner or later request negotiations in the tariff dispute. But now exclusive sources close to Beijing's center of power reveal that the reality appears to be quite different: Washington is seeking dialogue, but China is blocking it. Chinese President Xi Jinping is reportedly waiting for the US to take the first step toward Beijing. According to Chinese state media, the administration of US President Donald Trump has sought contact with Beijing to begin discussions about the massive tariffs imposed by Washington on China. The US government recently reached out to China through various channels, according to a post by Yuyuantantian, an account on the Chinese platform Weibo. This account is linked to China's national broadcaster (CCTV) and regularly publishes Beijing's perspective on trade issues. It cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The post sheds a whole new light on what has been happening behind the scenes between the world's two largest economies in recent weeks. Trump has repeatedly said that Chinese President Xi Jinping must contact him so that talks on tariff issues can begin. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said earlier this week that it is up to Beijing to take the first step toward de-escalating the dispute. As recently as Wednesday, Trump argued during a Cabinet meeting that the recent decline in trade indicates that Beijing must engage with him soon. He said he is "not happy" about the sharp decline in trade between the two countries because he wants "China to do well" and treat the US fairly. Later Wednesday, Trump also expressed confidence that he will eventually speak with Xi, even though the Chinese leader has so far appeared reluctant to speak directly with his American counterpart. "It will happen," Trump said. But what is now coming out of China sounds very different. "China doesn't need to talk to the US unless it takes meaningful action," Yuyuantantian said in the article. Regarding potential negotiations, the US is "clearly the more fearful party right now," Yuyuantantian said, referring to the pressure the Trump administration is facing on multiple fronts. Recent data just showed that the US economy shrank at the beginning of the year for the first time since 2022. The statistics provided an initial snapshot of the impact of Trump's trade policy. At the same time, prices from some of the most popular suppliers of Chinese-made goods already indicate that US buyers will foot a large portion of the bill, despite Trump's claims that Beijing will bear the brunt of his tariffs, currently at 145 percent. President Donald Trump therefore also acknowledged on Wednesday that his tariffs could lead to more expensive products in the United States. He said that American children might therefore only get “two dolls instead of 30 dolls,” but he insisted that China would suffer more from its trade war.