China has rejected President Donald Trump’s accusation that it violated a trade agreement recently announced in Geneva, Switzerland.
On Monday, Chinese officials responded to comments Trump made over the weekend that accused Beijing of failing to meet the terms established in a deal reached last month. The United States is the one cheating on the trade deal, and the president’s remarks are unfairly attempting to “turn the tables,” according to the Chinese Commerce Ministry. It released a statement ahead of an expected phone call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week.
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“The United States has successively introduced a number of discriminatory restrictive measures against China, including issuing export control guidelines for AI chips, stopping the sale of chip design software to China, and announcing the revocation of Chinese student visas,” the statement reads. China also vowed to “take resolute and forceful measures” in response to Trump.
The statement alluded to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s commitment last week to “aggressively” revoke visas issued to Chinese students who have “connections to the Chinese Communist Party or [are] studying in critical fields.”
“These practices … seriously undermine the existing consensus of the Geneva economic and trade talks, and seriously damage China’s legitimate rights and interests,” Beijing’s statement continues.
China’s outrage comes after Trump posted Friday that China, “perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US.”
“So much for being Mr. NICE GUY,” the president wrote, with his words coming after U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer similarly said, “We’re very concerned” that China is “slow-rolling their compliance” to the 90-day deal made in May. The trade deal reduced U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports to 30% from 145% while Beijing was set to shrink its tariffs on U.S. imports to 10%.
The Trump administration has since aired concerns about China’s delays in exporting critical rare earth minerals to the U.S., a move it says violates the agreement. Those minerals are necessary to develop a host of U.S. auto, electronics, and defense capabilities.
“What China is doing is they are holding back products that are essential for the industrial supply chains of India, of Europe, and that is not what a reliable partner does,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during a Sunday interview on CBS News’s Face the Nation.
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Chinese Commerce Ministry officials accused the U.S. of hypocrisy.
“Instead of reflecting on itself, it has turned the tables and unreasonably accused China of violating the consensus, which is seriously contrary to the facts,” the statement reads.