US President Donald Trump expressed confidence a talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping could ease fresh trade tensions, after White House officials vented anger over Beijing’s pace of issuing promised export licenses.
The dust-up threatened to again upend trade relations between the world’s two largest economies, which have been held together by a fragile, weeks-old tariff truce.
“They violated a big part of the agreement we made,” Trump told reporters Friday in the Oval Office. “But I’m sure that I’ll speak to President Xi, and hopefully we’ll work that out.”
It’s unclear if Xi would agree to a conversation with Trump. The last known call between the two leaders took place days before the US president’s inauguration in January.
While Trump didn’t explicitly detail his frustrations, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer earlier Friday accused Beijing of failing to comply with elements of the trade agreement brokered earlier this month in Geneva, and complained that China had not sped exports of critical minerals needed for cutting-edge electronics.
“We haven’t seen the flow of some of those critical minerals as they were supposed to be doing,” Greer said. “China continues to, you know, slow down and choke off things like critical minerals and rare Earth magnets.”
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Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said the US and China have “maintained communication over their respective concerns in the economic and trade fields” since the talks in Geneva. But the spokesman also mentioned recent actions the administration had taken against Beijing, underscoring the deepening gulf between the two nations.
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“China has repeatedly raised concerns with the US regarding its abuse of export control measures in the semiconductor sector and other related practices. China once again urges the US to immediately correct its erroneous actions, cease discriminatory restrictions against China and jointly uphold the consensus reached at the high-level talks in Geneva,” he said.
Following a rally that put the S&P 500 Index on track for its best May since 1990, the gauge fell as much as 1.2% before nearly wiping out the drop.
The latest spat spelled fresh turmoil for the president’s trade agenda, which was shaken earlier this week by a federal court ruling that halted the bulk of his tariffs. An appeals court temporarily paused the decision to hear arguments, though it could ultimately back the initial order and block Trump’s duties.
The developments also signalled that the relative detente reached in Geneva is being tested by a barrage of US actions that had drawn the ire of the Chinese government. Since the deal was struck, the Trump administration has announced that it would start revoking some Chinese student visas, a move that Beijing has blasted as “discriminatory.”
Trump officials have also introduced new restrictions on the sale of chip design software. The New York Times reported the US has also barred the export of critical jet engine parts and technology to China, while Reuters reported that Trump is planning to step up military sales to Taiwan.
The Commerce Department’s warning earlier this month to companies against using Huawei Technologies Co’s Ascend artificial-intelligence chips “anywhere in the world” was seen as provocative enough by China to draw a formal complaint to US officials, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
As a result, China has continued to stonewall the critical mineral exports, the paper reported. China’s position on its rare-earths restrictions were never publicly clarified following the Switzerland agreement, and the country’s exporters this month were still seeking clarity from Beijing on whether they’re allowed to sell to US buyers.
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China’s curbs apply to all countries, meaning sellers would need to seek individual exemptions, a slower and more complex process than the White House and importers were expecting.
Deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller told CNN on Friday that the US had “a broad range of options to hold China accountable” and that future steps would be similar to the crackdown on student visas.
“I’m not going to detail for you right now the entire hand the president is willing to play,” Miller said. “I will just put it this way, there are measures that have already been taken, there are measures that are being taken.”
Miller later told reporters that China needed to act “as soon as possible” to avoid additional action.
“China did not fulfill the obligations that it made and committed to with the United States, and so that opens up all manner of action for the United States,” he said.
Trump’s comments come a day after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that talks with China on trade were underway but had “stalled.” Bessent suggested that a call between Trump and Xi might be necessary to break the deadlock.
“I think that given the magnitude of the talks, given the complexity, that this is going to require both leaders to weigh in with each other,” Bessent said in a Fox News interview.
The US president said he would speak to the Chinese leader “maybe at the end of the week” following the Geneva talks — which concluded in mid-May — but that call did not appear to take place.
