Amid mounting uncertainties and potential economic fallout in the US market, President Donald Trump, according to reports, has stifled almost every possible channel of diplomatic engagement with China, aiming to deal directly with Xi Jinping as the trade war between the two superpowers escalates.
The Tit-for Tat duties between China and the US are a part of a broader US tariff campaign against more than 90 countries to address the trade imbalances.
Although he has paused hikes for 90 days, Beijing was an exception as it faces 145 per cent tariff duties, while China retaliated with 125 per cent tariffs on US goods and restricted certain key exports.
The United States president is hellbent on direct negotiations with Xi and has reached his various avenues to engage Chinese leadership in direct talks. However, there has been no response from Beijing over what is being reported in the news media.
Additionally, there are reports that Donald Trump has restricted the back-channel talks and diplomatic engagements between the officials, as he wants to take up the matter directly with Xi Jinping.
“The backchannels don’t work because President Trump doesn’t want them to,” Ryan Hass, former director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia at the National Security Council during the Obama administration, told reporters.
“Trump wants to deal directly with President Xi in the same way he has with Russian President Vladimir Putin,” he said.
Meanwhile, earlier reports confirmed that Washington was waiting for Beijing to make the first call.
Despite the ongoing tariff war, Trump praised China and said, “China wants to make a deal. They just don’t know quite how to go about it,” Trump has said. “They’re proud people.”
Additionally, the US is also trying to use other countries having good trade relations with China, including India, to leverage pressure on China for direct trade negotiations.
Beijing has also reacted with warnings to the countries to not get influenced by what they called Washington’s “pressure tactics.”
In a statement on Monday, the Chinese Commerce Ministry stressed that it would retaliate against any country that takes such a deal “at the expense of China’s interests.”
Already, US markets have witnessed unprecedented losses since the tariff announcement; the Share market has taken a nosedive and is still struggling to maintain the pre-April 7 balance.
