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Trump Says 'We're in a Trade War with China Now' (Q&A)
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October 15, 2025
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39:19Now PlayingPresident Trump took questions from reporters in the White House after an event with Kash Patel and Pam Bondi. He said he might go to the Supreme Court to watch its hearing over tariffs. He also responded to a question from a reporter on whether the US is in a sustained trade war with China answering, "well, we're in one now"
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent lashed out at a top Chinese trade official, saying he turned up in Washington recently uninvited and behaved in an “unhinged” fashion typical of Beijing’s so-called wolf warrior diplomats.
Bessent claimed Li Chenggang’s August visit to the US capital was not at the request of the Trump administration. “Perhaps the vice minister who showed up here with very incendiary language on Aug. 28 has gone rogue,” the Treasury chief said Wednesday at a press conference.
“This individual was very disrespectful,” he added, after earlier calling him “unhinged” at a separate CNBC event. At that event, Bessent mispronounced Li’s given name as “Kuanggong” and referred to him as a “lower level” person despite Li having full ministerial rank in China.
After months of tentative stability in the US-China relationship, tensions flared in recent weeks after Washington broadened some tech restrictions and proposed levies on Chinese ships entering US ports. China responded with parallel moves and outlined tighter export controls on rare earths and other critical materials.
China’s Commerce Ministry on Thursday said Bessent had “seriously distorted” facts. Li was in the US to follow up on earlier talks between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, and he presented China’s position on the US’s shipping probe, spokeswoman He Yongqian said at a regular press briefing.
China has maintained communications with the US recently and has presented suggestions, but the US has shown a “negative” attitude, she said, forcing China to take countermeasures.
China’s surprisingly quick agreement with the US to wind back punitive tariff rates put a spotlight on a Chinese negotiating team that features decades worth of technical trade experience alongside a top aide of President Xi Jinping.
While Vice Premier He Lifeng, a longtime associate of China’s leader, has been described by some observers as lacking the international experience of his predecessor, Harvard Kennedy School-trained Liu He, he brought with him to Geneva a team well prepared to take on US counterparts.
The crew engaging with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was on public display for the first time Sunday, with Vice Commerce Minister Li Chenggang and Vice Finance Minister Liao Min flanking 70-year-old He, in a large wood-paneled press hall at China’s World Trade Organization mission in Geneva.
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