After the announcement, Trump said he was open to talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, adding that he “can’t imagine” raising tariffs on China further. He earlier claimed that China would call him to “make a deal”.
On Thursday, China’s commerce and foreign ministries repeated that China was open to negotiations with the US only if they were conducted in a “fair and mutually respectful” manner. They also said they would “fight to the end” if the US wanted a trade war.
“It is no longer a game about tariffs themselves, but a game of strategic resolve,” Zhao Minghao, deputy director at the Centre for American Studies at Fudan University, in Shanghai, said in reference to the recent back-and-forth tariffs.
“China has adopted an attitude of being prepared to go the distance and pay any price,” he said, adding that it would take several months for the two sides to return to rational negotiations.
