President Trump moved to ease tensions with China on Sunday after threatening to impose a sweeping 100% tariff on all its imports in retaliation for Beijing’s new export controls.
“Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine! Highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
“He doesn’t want Depression for his country, and neither do I. The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!!” he wrote.
The post followed a firm response from Beijing earlier in the day, in which China’s Commerce Ministry warned Washington not to resort to “threats” and vowed to “resolutely take corresponding measures” if the US moved forward with the tariff increase on imports.
“We do not want a tariff war, but we are not afraid of one,” the ministry said, calling tariff threats “not the correct way to get along with China.”
Trump announced Friday that he would impose the sweeping measures on Chinese goods and threatened to cancel his planned Oct. 29 meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The trade war flared over a new Chinese Commerce Ministry rule on Thursday that required companies to seek permission to export items containing or made with rare-earth minerals, including batteries, semiconductors, and technologies with magnets.
Trump claimed the rule would throttle the world economy, possibly denying components to several essential products in the international supply chain.
Beijing’s order would force other nations to obtain licenses to export products that contain more than 0.1% of rare earths, escalating a trade battle with the US over semiconductor chips that power cell phones, computers, and data centers for AI models.
China currently produces roughly 90% of the world’s rare-earth minerals that help produce those products, according to The Wall Street Journal.
US stocks nosedived on Friday after Trump threatened a “massive increase” in tariffs on China.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 878 points, or 1.9%, to 45,479.60, while the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.7% and 3.6%, respectively. All three indexes suffered their largest single-day percentage drops since April.
Trump said Beijing has until Nov. 1 to change course.
Vice President JD Vance backed Trump’s position in an appearance on Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures,” calling the issue a matter of national security.
“It’s going to be a delicate dance, and a lot of it is going to depend on how the Chinese respond. If they respond in a highly aggressive manner, I guarantee you the President of the United States has far more cards than the People’s Republic of China,” Vance said on air Sunday.
The Commerce Ministry statement also slammed the US for ignoring Chinese concerns by moving forward with new port fees on Chinese ships that take effect Tuesday. China announced Friday that it would impose port fees on American ships in response.
With Post wires
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