Chinese officials on Monday criticized the Trump administration’s approach to negotiating tariff policy and accused the U.S. of bullying other nations.
“They make up bargaining chips out of thin air, bully and go back on their words,” said Zhao Chenxin, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s main economic planning agency.
That approach, Zhao continued, “makes everyone see one thing more and more clearly, that is the so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs’ severely go against historical trends and economic laws, impact international trade rules and order and seriously impair the legitimate rights and interests of countries.”
The remarks came at a briefing Monday by several senior Chinese officials across numerous government agencies.
The officials sought to reassure the public of the nation’s ability to weather any potential economic fallout from President Trump’s tariffs of 145 percent on Chinese imports.
The government said it would increase support for companies to help keep workers employed and would take steps to encourage entrepreneurship among unemployed individuals, according to Yu Jiadong, a vice minister of Human Resources and Social Security.
The People’s Bank of China will also cut interest rates and relax reserve requirements as needed to encourage lending, a deputy governor of the bank, Zou Lan, said on Monday.
“Incremental policies will be introduced in a timely manner to help stabilize employment, enterprises, markets, and expectations,” Zou said.
Zhao said China has been gradually decreasing food and grain imports from the U.S. and that stopping those purchases would not have a noticeable effect on the country’s food supply. Zhao similarly said China can make do without U.S. energy imports.
“Enterprises reducing or even stopping energy imports from the United States will have no impact on our country’s energy supply,” Zhao said.
It remains unclear whether Trump has spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping about tariffs. Trump has said he has spoken to Xi “many times,” but China has denied that any negotiations on tariffs have begun.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday he doesn’t know whether Trump and Xi have discussed tariffs, when asked whether negotiations are underway and who has been talking.
“I had interaction with my Chinese counterparts — but it was more on the traditional things, like financial stability, global economic early warnings,” Bessent told ABC News’s Martha Raddatz on “This Week.”
“I don’t know if President Trump has spoken with President Xi,” he continued. “I know they have a very good relationship and a lot of respect for each other.”
“But, again, I think that the Chinese will see that this high tariff level is unsustainable for their business,” Bessent added.
The Associated Press contributed.
