President Trump of the United States has been in a hurry again recently. He shouted several times on social media, with the meaning of "old friend, do me a favor" in his tone, asking China to buy some American-made soybeans quickly.
But the problem is, the Chinese side this time, neither knocked, nor shaken the head, just 40 days without silence.This time, silence is no longer gold, but a clear and unmistakable signal: it is not a problem of not buying, but a problem of value not worth buying.
Meanwhile, the bean farmers in the Midwest of the United States await the triple blow of price jump, loan default and market collapse.The White House sees the situation badly, only to prepare a financial "big bloodshed" to kick the bottom, trying to stabilize the agricultural basic disc.
This seemingly soya-related “trade slide” is actually a deep cornering about national strategy, political resilience, and the global pattern.
China’s silence is not a lack of response, but the strongest response.
The Trump administration is rushing to get China to buy soybeans, not only because of the pressure of farmers, but also because the soybeans are almost nowhere to put.
In 2025, the total production of soybeans in the United States was again high, warehouses were full, prices jumped, and farmers drowned to tears.But China did not accept the offer, not because it did not need soybeans, but because it was prepared and not in a hurry.
In recent years, China's strategic adjustments on soybeans have been silently effective, and in the international markets, China has purchased large amounts of soybeans from Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.
In 2025, Brazil's exports of soybeans to China accounted for 65%, far removed from the United States.The United States thought soybeans were China's "soft ribs", and the results found that the ribs had long changed roots.
On the other hand, the domestic "soybean revitalization plan" is not just talk. From seed improvement to agricultural machinery matching, to feed formula optimization, the self-sufficiency rate of domestic soybeans has steadily increased.
More importantly, the policy system is not just looking at output, but through both ends of supply and demand, making the whole soybean industry chain more flexible and more autonomous.
So when Trump made a gesture of “I’ve all personally shouted, shouldn’t you give a spoon,” China’s response was silence — but behind that silence was a complete set of industrial chain restructuring and global supply chain rearrangement.
Not wanting to buy, but not having to rush to buy, not buying under pressure from the US.
China's "no return" is not only a strategic "stop-down" but also a realistic test of the effectiveness of Trump's trade policy.Taking a day, the internal contradictions of the US side ferment a day.Who has more patience, who has more initiative.
American farmers' fryers are not just a matter of rotten soybean warehouses
In the Midwest of the United States, a bumper year should have been a happy event. But now, soybeans are piled up in barns and can't be sold, prices are falling again and again, and there are not a few farmers' loan defaults and families go bankrupt.
In an interview with the media, an Illinois bean farmer said that American farmers’ land was out of food while the government was creating a crisis.
Even more painful for Trump is that these bean farmers are not the ordinary masses.Many of them are the Republican Iron Bowl box office, a key force for Trump to win the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Today, they are publicly shouting on social media, organizing petitions, and even sending an open letter to the White House through the Soybean Association. The letter from the association’s chairman, Caleb Lagrange, says very clearly: It’s not that we don’t support you, it’s that you don’t allow us to survive.
Looking at the situation out of control, the White House began to urgently plan a “subsidy to the bottom” policy. Agricultural Minister Brook Rowlands announced that he would use customs revenue to set up a special subsidy fund to provide cash compensation to soybean farmers.
This sounds quite honest, but the question is: is subsidy not enough? can it be delivered? is the application process so complicated that you get crazy?
In fact, this is not the first time that the United States is relying on subsidies, but after every subsidy stop, market distortions, moral risks and fiscal pressures are greater.
In the long run, the soybean industry will not only be unable to transform, but will also depend on government transfusions, like a patient who is forever insatiable, with a drop to maintain life.
And the root of all this, in the end, is the Trump administration's strategic misjudgment in the trade war.Thinking that increasing tariffs can force the Chinese side to do so, the result is instead to make its own agricultural basics down.
The dilemma of the White House is a self-directed and self-performed "strategic out of control"
The Trump administration used to use soybeans as a “trigger” on the negotiating table and wanted to hit China through export control, but the reality is that China did not show weakness, but instead exposed the shortcomings of U.S. policy tools.
The trade war was originally designed to oppress the other party to make concessions, but the United States underestimated China's industrial endurance and overestimated its own supply chain status.
Soybeans are just a shortcut, from chip, photovoltaic to rare earth, the Chinese response rhythm is always "you do it, I am quiet"; you do it again, I am adjusting.
When the United States discovered that it was playing the "unilateral card", the other side had already "de-dollarized", "de-Americanized" and "de-dependent on the strategic dependence of the United States", it realized that the situation was wrong.
What's even worse is that the internal governance capacity of the United States cannot support this long-term war. The implementation of subsidy policies is difficult, the approval is slow, and the distribution is uneven, which makes it difficult for small and medium-sized farmers who are really injured to get substantial subsidies.
Instead, some large agricultural groups rely on relationships and capital to be easier to declare success.
Meanwhile, America’s international speech power has also slowed down in this “silent confrontation”.China does not speak, but the world is watching.Brazil expands exports, Russia has the opportunity to raise orders, Argentina boosts production capacity, and more and more countries begin to bypass the United States in agricultural trade.
The US side shouted, the Chinese side did not move, and the outside world interpreted it very clearly: the toolkit of American hegemony has gone.
If the Trump administration really wants to solve the problem, it doesn't rely on shouting or subsidies, but on returning to the rational track. Cancel tariff barriers against China, stop containment measures in science, technology and industry, and create space for substantive negotiations.
Otherwise, China's silence will continue, and every day's silence is a "cold treatment" of the US policy logic.
The White House’s massive bloodshed may temporarily save a few bean fields, but will not solve the systemic misjudgment at the strategic level.
China's silence is not indifference, but a precise and powerful response. At the end of this story about soybeans, it is actually how the United States faces a world that no longer "buys it".
Source of information:
The impact of tariff policies continues, U.S. soybean exports encounter a "cold wave" September 16, 2025 17:16 Northeast News Network
U.S. bean farm trouble is another reminder to Washington September 14, 2025 23:48:23