Trump’s Late-Night Post Over Xi Deepens Trade Impasse

Enda Curran, Global Economy reporter for Bloomberg News, discusses trade tensions between the US and China after Trump's late night Truth Social post.

President Donald Trump is positioning a personal discussion with his Chinese counterpart as the key to preventing the world’s largest economies from spiraling deeper into their trade and technology fight.

But Chinese leader Xi Jinping is making clear that a phone call doesn’t come without a price — a resolute stand so far that’s apparently keeping Trump up late into the night.

“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. His complaint came after a flurry of US officials claimed this week the two men were set to speak.

Exactly what the Chinese are asking the White House to relinquish in order to secure the one-on-one remains unclear. But the US president’s unanswered pleas are looking more like a standoff without an off ramp.

Beijing, meanwhile, is making overtures in the direction of Europe, which is engaged in its own tariff dispute with Trump.

“If China doesn’t want a call, it could be that they don’t intend to comply or are intentionally holding their cards for the time being,” said Kelly Ann Shaw, a partner at Akin Gump and former senior adviser to Trump during his first term. “If there isn’t a call, I would expect further escalation in the bilateral relationship before things de-escalate again.”

At the heart of the stalemate is a mismatch in negotiating styles that, if it continues, threatens to derail the bilateral relationship.

While Trump wants to hash things out with his counterpart, Chinese officials are reluctant to commit before working out deliverables at lower levels. Oval Office showdowns with the leaders of South Africa and Ukraine in recent weeks have likely offered little reassurance to Beijing to accept Trump’s terms.

A ‘Disconnect’

“There’s a fundamental disconnect here,” former acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. “Trump wants to talk at the very highest levels. That’s not always how the Chinese want to do business.”

While it isn’t impossible for the US and China to strike a deal, expectations for what it would entail look out of sync.

Policymakers in Beijing want to have broader access to high-end US chips, essentially for AI and military advancement, as well as the opportunity for more Chinese investment in the US. Beijing could be open to buying more US agricultural products, too.

Rolling back sweeping controls on cutting-edge technology expanded under Joe Biden would be politically toxic in Washington, where there’s rare consensus among Democrats and Republicans that China poses a national security threat.

Officials in Washington also believe Beijing has been dumping goods on the US for decades, threatening American jobs and industry, and are seeking major concessions.

That both sides are talking past each other has become evident in the confusion over China’s position on rare earths — metals that are core to America’s national-security supply chains and automakers in particular.

Trump and his team have accused Beijing of breaking the trade agreement announced in mid-May, where both countries significantly lowered tariffs and China agreed to remove other retaliatory measures it imposed in response to earlier duty hikes.

In Washington’s view, that meant China would immediately grant licenses to export rare earths to American companies that had been cut off.

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