By agreeing to meet with the Trump administration to discuss trade, China is looking to take on the position of the bruiseful superpower competition that has shaken up the global financial system and caused the fear of a recession.
For weeks, China had publicly said it would not be involved in trade negotiations with the US under obsession, but refused to compromise by “a bully” and “knee off his knees.” Washington first argued that impressive tariffs should be dropped on China as a condition of negotiations.
On Wednesday, Beijing said he would come to the table after all, saying his top trader, his Lifeng, will meet with Swiss Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week. Still, it maintained a harsh attitude and warned Washington against using the lecture as a “smoke screen to continue compulsion and terror.”
The Chinese government said it came to this decision “based on full consideration of global expectations, Chinese interests, and US industry and consumer appeals,” suggesting that it is doing so primarily for greater profits.
“China is trying to frame itself as the head of the line, but it's still a pretty strong line tone. You'll behave yourself better in these talks,” said Yun Sang, a Chinese analyst at the Stinson Centre.
But the move is to temper China's stance when economic data shows that the brink of trade is at the expense of both economies.
The Trump administration's decision to raise tariffs on Chinese goods imported into the US by 145%, and China's response to hiking its own tariffs on American goods to 125%, has effectively frozen all trade in recent weeks.
The Chinese factory was hit by the sharpest slowdown in activity in more than a year, causing a plunge in the shipment of Chinese products to the US, causing a wave of warnings from retailers about shortages. The American economy shrank in the first three months of the year, with businesses cutting growth forecasts.
Both the US and China seem interested in reducing tariffs, but neither side wanted to make the initial concession. It also remains unclear whether or not both countries will attack any kind of deal, or what the details are, how fast, how fast, and how fast it will be.
In an interview with Fox News Tuesday night, Bessent said he hopes the meeting with Swiss Chinese officials will focus on de-escalation rather than on a massive deal.
“It needs to escalate before we can move forward,” Becent said.
China hopes that even if the US did not cancel the tariffs first, as Beijing requested, it will show that it will come to negotiate from its position of strength. Recently, US officials have repeatedly said they have reached out to talks, which is considering the demand.
“Chinese people are trying to avoid the image that Chinese people want to talk about,” San said.
Chinese officials could treat trade consultations as a fact-finding mission.
“Chinese people want to know what Donald Trump really is doing. Only by engaging in in-person meetings can we get this,” said Wang Xiangwei, an associate professor of journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University.
For example, it was not entirely clear to Beijing that Trump officials had previously been in charge of negotiations with China.
Part of the challenges in dealing with the Trump administration regarding trade is that the direction of policy appears to vary depending on who is speaking. Peter Navarro, a senior White House trade adviser and architect of many of Trump's trade plans, defends tariffs when necessary, but Bescent says the US is willing to negotiate with the country.
Even if the Trump administration appeared to try to find a trade standoff ramp, there were still some questions about what tone the administration would hit during talks.
China said he will be in Geneva from Friday to Monday for a meeting with Swiss leaders, and while he was there he would also meet Mr. Becent. The Trump administration said US trade representative Jamieson Greer would also be present at the meeting, but China did not mention Greer in its own statement on talks.
Finding out what Trump wants from China and what he is willing to acknowledge in negotiations is useful for Beijing, as he understands the response. China is also trying to convince other countries not to put pressure on pressure from the Trump administration's efforts to isolate China by imposing its own tariffs on Chinese products or by separating it from Chinese-made manufacturing.
For Beijing, skillfully lowering temperatures without appearing weak in the face of Trump's tariffs could help its own efforts to stimulate the economy. Chinese officials are under pressure at home from both fallouts of both multi-year property crisis that wiped out the savings of many families and cleared wider trade tensions with countries outside the US.
On Wednesday, China's central bank and its financial regulators still took the biggest policy measures to protect the economy from the trade war, reinforcing the economy with a series of measures to make it easier for banks to lend money and spend people.
The Trump administration's “customs policy has hit the international economic and trade order seriously, has caused major turbulence in international financial markets, and put considerable pressure on domestic capital markets,” Chinese equity regulator Wu Qing said at a press conference with the top official.
China also comes to consultations encouraged by the knowledge that Trump blinked in the face of US government's sharp sell-offs in bond markets and wider financial market turbulence. The US midterm elections could put pressure on Trump to lower or reduce tariffs if consumer prices rise as a result of a shortage of products.
“These are the most important aspects of the world,” said Scott Kennedy, senior advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington research group. “If they stone the Trump administration completely, they could become complicity in halting the global economy.”
Zixu Wang Reports of contributions.
