President Donald Trump said in a late-night social media post that Chinese leader Xi Jinping was very tough to make a deal with, raising questions about whether a fragile economic truce between the world’s two largest economies will hold.
China and the US are at odds on a number of issues, and have yet to confirm plans for a leader-to-leader call the White House has said it expects will happen later this week.
“I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social at around 2:17 a.m. Washington time.
“China’s principle and position of developing China-US relations is consistent,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference on Wednesday when asked about Trump’s social media post about Xi.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment placed in overnight hours after Trump’s post.
Tensions between the countries are ratcheting up again after a tariff truce in May. The Trump administration in recent weeks has barred the shipping of critical jet engine parts to China, throttled Beijing’s access to chip-design software and sought to slap fresh curbs on Huawei Technologies Co. chips.
US officials also announced last week a plan to start revoking visas for Chinese students.
Beyond strains in economic ties, geopolitical tensions are also growing. China’s Foreign Ministry over the weekend protested US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s assertion at a gathering of military chiefs that China poses an imminent threat to Taiwan, a self-ruled island claimed by Beijing.
Market reaction was muted following Trump’s post on Xi, given tensions between the US and China had increased in recent days. A gauge of Chinese stocks traded in Hong Kong pared gains to 0.5%, the Bloomberg Dollar Index slipped 0.1%, while US Treasuries were steady with the 10-year yield at 4.45%.
Trump expressed hope Friday he would soon speak with Xi, telling reporters in the Oval Office that China violated part of the agreement the two nations made in Geneva to cut tariff levels and reduce tensions, but that “I’m sure that I’ll speak to President Xi, and hopefully we’ll work that out.”
While China has yet to confirm plans for direct leader-level talks, the White House has repeatedly insisted Trump and Xi were “likely” to speak this week.
A key sticking point appears to be critical minerals. Trump administration officials have accused Beijing of continuing to choke off access to rare earth magnets, despite Washington’s decision to reduce tariffs last month hinging on China lifting such controls.
One complication is that the US and China appear to have different understandings of what was agreed on rare earths at last month’s trade talks in Geneva, Cory Combs, head of critical mineral supply chain research at Trivium China, told Bloomberg TV.
“On the US side, it seems clear now, there was a sense that Beijing would completely remove the requirement of an approval,” Combs said. “That was not what Beijing seems to think it agreed to.”
For its part, Beijing has accused the US of unilaterally introducing new discriminatory restrictions, and vowed to retaliate if the US insists on its own way.
Trump has long said that direct talks with Xi were the only way to resolve differences between the nations, but the Chinese leader has been reluctant to get on the phone with his American counterpart — preferring that advisers negotiate key issues.
Another reason is the world’s No. 2 economy has shown resilience to America’s steepest tariff regime in a century. But while record government spending and stimulus buoyed growth in the first quarter, the manufacturing sector shrank in recent months. Home prices have continued a yearslong slump, weighing on the spending power of consumers whose wealth is tied up in property.
Trump had signaled a wish to have a call with his Chinese counterpart as early as February and later said he was willing to travel to the Asian nation to meet with Xi, although no such engagement has been scheduled so far.
