On Friday, US President Donald Trump said he would take a harder line on China on trade matters, saying he would no longer be "Mr. Nice Guy" after he accused Beijing of violating its trade promises to Washington.
Addressing the Oval Office, Trump disclosed intentions to negotiate with Chinese President Xi Jinping, hoping the two countries could "work that out." However, he insisted that China had not held to the terms of their deal.
Although Trump did not identify the deal, his comments are a sharp contrast to the recent trend of guarded optimism between the two economic giants. Trump had just weeks ago lowered his tariffs on Chinese goods from a high of 145 percent to 30 percent for 90 days in a bid to ease trade talks. China also reduced tariffs on US goods from 125 percent to 10 percent in response.
The bad news is that China, NOT UNEXPECTEDLY TO MANY, HAS COMPLETELY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US," Trump wrote on a social media post. "So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!"
Trump mentioned that the rollback of the tariffs helped "quickly stabilize" the economy of China and eased pressure on U.S. companies, which had complained the former high tariffs discouraged imports and jeopardized their operations.
His comments underscore simmering tensions between the two biggest economies of the world, as the administration urges tariffs as a means to restore American factory jobs and spur domestic investment.
The U.S. government also ratcheted up pressure on China this week by saying it would cancel visas of Chinese students in the United States, adding to the strain between the two nations.
China's Washington embassy reacted by admitting there were continuing communications following the Geneva trade discussions close to three weeks ago but vilifying the U.S. for what it called "abuse of export control measures in the computer chip sector and other related practices."
Since both countries have been racing hard to be at the forefront in advanced sectors like Artificial Intelligence, the U.S. has been blocking China's access to cutting-edge semiconductor technology.
"China again calls on the U.S. to rectify its wrongdoings at once, end discriminatory restrictions on China, and together maintain the agreement achieved during the high-level talks in Geneva," the embassy added in a statement.
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