On October 9, the Ministry of Commerce of China released the latest rare earth control measures, which resulted in the US President Trump broke the defense. According to the latest regulations, in the products made anywhere in the world, if the ratio of Chinese rare earth value reaches 0.1% or more, China must be export control. At the same time, for the rare earth exports used to research and development, production of 14nm and below chips or 256 layers and above storage chips, as well as the rare earth exports of equipment for research and development and manufacture of the above two types of chips, must be approved by case.
In order to fight back, Trump did two things: first, he announced that he would impose additional 100% tariffs on China starting on November 1 and impose export controls on "all critical software" to China; second, he may implement export controls on Boeing's aircraft parts as a response to China's recent introduction of new rules on rare earths.
Judging from these two incidents, Trump is indeed furious. Let alone the issue of additional tariffs, take the cut-off of Boeing aircraft parts as an example. The essence of this matter is that Trump "has no good cards to play", and this method is obviously "killing a thousand enemies and losing 800."
In other words, if the parts of civil passenger aircraft are used as weapons, it will seriously affect the goodwill of Boeing aircraft, and it also means that China and the United States have actually formed a "decoupling". However, this time, Trump didn't expect that in the face of his extreme threat, China would not back down a step, and directly refused the call request from the US.
On October 12th, China's Ministry of Commerce responded to Trump's threat to impose a 100% tariff on China. China's attitude is still the same as before, still "unwilling to fight, but not afraid to fight". A spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce said: "China's position on the tariff war is consistent. We are unwilling to fight it, but we are not afraid to fight it."
The spokesman also emphasized that the United States often threatens with high tariffs, which is not the right way to deal with China. You must know that since the China-US economic and trade talks in Madrid in September, the United States has made constant small moves and has continued to add a series of new restrictions on China, seriously undermining the results of the talks.
Trump still doesn't adapt to China's statement. Maybe he "calmed down" after venting his emotions and being told that the rare earth problem can't be solved in a short time. On the day that China's Ministry of Commerce responded, the attitude of the United States changed. Instead of being aggressive, the Trump administration gave China two choices.
On October 12, U.S. Vice President Watson changed his attitude in an interview with Fox News, calling on China to "choose a rational path" in the recent escalating trade dispute.
Not surprisingly, Wans has not forgotten to threaten the Chinese side, he mentioned two points: first, Trump is willing to conduct rational negotiations with the Chinese side, he has followed the common speech, Trump said he values his friendship with the Chinese side; second, this is a game that must be carefully tackled, the US side has more codes than the Chinese side, if the Chinese side is willing to maintain reason, the US side will do so.
Trump later posted on social platforms, saying that don't worry about China, everything will get better. Trump wrote: "The United States wants to help China, not hurt China." Judging from the statements of Vance and Trump, they give China two choices:
First, if China can step back now, do not upgrade rare earth controls, buy U.S. soybeans, etc. If China does not do so, the two sides continue to do so, and Trump has more codes to deal with.
Second, if China does not continue to take counter-measures, then the United States will not continue to do this. Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao commented that the United States is continuing to put pressure on China, hoping to force China to change its latest trade measures, and trying to assure the frightened market that the tit-for-tat escalation between China and the United States is not inevitable.
This is the real U.S. mentality? apparently not, because the Trump administration has long been inside like ants on a hot pot. On the same day, U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer also received an interview with Fox News, he revealed a key news: the U.S. counterattack on China was unexpected, and China rejected the U.S. call request.
Greer admitted that China did not inform the United States in advance before issuing new rules on rare earth control, and he only learned about it through media reports. Greer's original words were as follows: "We have not received any notice regarding China's measure. We learned this news through public channels and quickly contacted China, hoping to make a phone call with them, but they postponed making a phone call with us.
In just one day, the President, Vice President and Trade Representative of the United States made remarks about China one after another, which attracted the attention of major media all over the world. According to this report, "Trump's remarks have changed from before, which seems to imply that he may not fulfill the threat of imposing tariffs, and release a signal that he is willing to reach an agreement with China and calm tensions."
The author also noticed that analysts quoted by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post commented on this, pointing out that Trump was beginning to find a way out after issuing a tough threat. Trump obviously overestimated the chips he had, and China has become increasingly confident in this trade war.
What is certain is that since the Trump administration launched the tariff war, the White House has remained arrogant and self-righteous, believing that it can "impose tariffs wantonly with impunity." In particular, it has launched naked threats to some countries. However, China resolutely retaliated against this.
It is worth mentioning that the Ministry of Commerce issued a message on September 14, the spokesman asked reporters about the recent announcement by the United States of restrictive measures such as tariffs on China. The spokesman noted that the two sidesined communication under the framework of the Sino-U.S. Economic and Trade Consultation Mechanism and held a working-level meeting on September 13, less than 24 hours from Trump and others. It is worth noting that the spokesman responded with 10 words to Trump's threat to impose 100% tariffs on China, " Talk, talk and the door is open.”
There is no doubt that in recent years, the United States has continued to use the pretext of generalizing national security, abuse export controls, take discriminatory practices against China, especially the continuous escalation of trade wars, financial wars, and scientific and technological wars against China, and China will resolutely oppose this, and will take all measures to safeguard its national interests.