{"id":73331,"date":"2025-10-14T05:43:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T05:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/73331\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T05:43:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T05:43:11","slug":"trump-and-xi-spark-another-standoff-with-world-economy-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/73331\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and Xi spark another standoff with world economy at risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping\u2019s latest tit-for-tat showdown has both countries claiming the ball is now in the other\u2019s court, with the clock ticking toward another escalation in import tariffs.<\/p>\n

After Trump signaled openness to doing a deal with Beijing, U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Sunday declared the outcome would “depend on how the Chinese respond.\u201d Hours later, China\u2019s Foreign Ministry made clear Beijing would take its cues from Washington\u2019s next steps, after having already unleashed what it saw as retaliatory actions.<\/p>\n

“If the U.S. continues on its wrong course, China will firmly take necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,\u201d Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular briefing in Beijing. Chinese authorities haven\u2019t yet retaliated to Trump\u2019s threat to impose 100% tariffs over their latest rare earth curbs, while saying there could be “exemptions\u201d in order to facilitate trade.<\/p>\n

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that he believes the Trump-Xi meeting “will still be on,\u201d noting there had been “substantial communication over the weekend.\u201d In the meantime, he expected U.S.-China staff-level meetings this week, along with moves by the Trump administration to mobilize U.S. allies to put pressure on Beijing, while also threatening “straight brute force countermeasures\u201d if Beijing doesn\u2019t act.<\/p>\n

“This is China versus the world,\u201d Bessent said. “They have pointed a bazooka at the supply chains and the industrial base of the entire free world. And you know, we\u2019re not going to have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question now is which side blinks first.<\/p>\n

The S&P 500 closed 1.6% higher Monday, its best showing since May, as investors saw the back-and-forth as strategic posturing. China\u2019s markets showed resilience to the turmoil, with the CSI 300 benchmark for onshore shares ending Monday down just 0.5%.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s hard to gauge who exactly has more leverage, what\u2019s abundantly clear is China\u2019s export sector can withstand U.S. tariffs of around 50%, said Christopher Beddor, deputy China research director at Gavekal Dragonomics.<\/p>\n

“Beijing does care if the tariffs go past 100%, but as long as that scenario doesn\u2019t materialize, tariffs are a lesser priority,\u201d he added. “The rare earth actions are intended to extract U.S. concessions on tech export controls, but it\u2019s also not in either side\u2019s interest to completely derail the negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trade data on Monday showed China\u2019s shipments overseas growing at their fastest pace in six months, blunting the impact of any tariff hike from the U.S.. Trump has other tools to inflict pain: He\u2019s already threatened to thwart Beijing\u2019s access to jet parts and stop selling China critical software.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n U.S. President Donald Trump (left) and Chinese leader Xi Jinping\u2019s latest tit-for-tat showdown is putting the world economy at risk again.
\n | BLOOMBERG\n <\/p>\n

Bessent, speaking on Fox Business Monday, said he expects to meet with his counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, “in Asia\u201d ahead of the Trump-Xi sit-down. Last month, before the current flap, he had indicated Frankfurt for the next round of talks aimed at extending a rolling 90-day truce that\u2019s set to expire in early November. The conversations will likely lay the groundwork for concessions to resolve the latest flare-up.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, China believes it has the upper hand, said Josef Gregory Mahoney, a professor of international relations at Shanghai\u2019s East China Normal University.<\/p>\n

“China is confident it\u2019s better positioned than the U.S. to absorb any shocks from the trade war,\u201d he said. “Trump needs a deal before the holiday shopping and maybe even before the Supreme Court rules against him,\u201d he added, referring to a pending decision on whether his tariffs are legal.<\/p>\n

When a trade truce between the U.S. and China fell apart in May after Washington took fresh steps against Chinese national chip champion Huawei Technologies, Beijing imposed a blockade on its rare earth magnets critical to manufacturing everything from mobile phones to missiles. Trump responded by relenting on some export controls, marking a seismic change in Washington\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n

If the U.S. doesn\u2019t make similar concessions in this round then Xi could once again jam the flow of rare earths to the U.S., by slowing the license approval system it imposed earlier this year. Unwinding U.S. curbs imposed for national security reasons would likely face opposition from China hawks in Washington, who \u2014 though not as prominent as in Trump\u2019s first term \u2014 are still pushing for pursuing a harder line on Beijing.<\/p>\n

Adding to the incentive to keep talks on track, the Republican leader is under pressure from farmers in key voting states to find markets for U.S. soybeans that Beijing won\u2019t buy. Meanwhile, losing a deal previously agreed with Xi\u2019s team to keep Chinese app TikTok online in the U.S. would hinder his ability to connect with voters on the platform ahead of the 2026-midterms.<\/p>\n

Xi\u2019s framework for controlling its rare earths \u2014 which applies even to shipments by foreign firms overseas, under the latest rules \u2014 mirrors measures Washington has for years had in place on its cutting-edge semiconductors. While China once condemned those tactics as “long-arm jurisdiction,\u201d now it appears to be playing the U.S. at its own game.<\/p>\n

“Beijing might also be incorporating some of Trump\u2019s signature negotiation tactics,\u201d said Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura. That includes “extreme opening offers, exploiting leverage and opponents\u2019 weaknesses and credible walk-away threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wu Xinbo, director at Fudan University\u2019s Center for American Studies in Shanghai, said the U.S. would need to scale back actions it took after last month\u2019s phone call between Trump and Xi for the two men to hold their first meeting since 2019.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, the U.S. has moved ahead with a deadline for imposing U.S. port fees on Chinese ships and removed a waiver introduced by the administration of previous U.S. President Joe Biden allowing some of the world\u2019s biggest chipmakers to keep operations in China.<\/p>\n

“If you want to go ahead with summit meeting, then you have to adjust your regulations, your policies,\u201d said Wu. “If not \u2014 fine. We don\u2019t beg for a summit meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping\u2019s latest tit-for-tat showdown has both countries claiming the ball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1657,54,42,43,4315,40,38,41,39,3793,4374,8429],"class_list":{"0":"post-73331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-tariffs","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories","17":"tag-trade","18":"tag-u-s","19":"tag-xi-jinping"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}