The seemingly peaceful truce period between China and the United States has made waves again in recent days.
U.S. officials publicly complained that the Chinese side refused to conduct telephone communication, which was the fourth day of the Chinese counter-reaction, and it seems that the U.S. side has completely failed this time.
Why is it that the established communication mechanism between China and the United States has been destroyed by the United States in just a few months?
The dialogue has been orderly advanced, and the Sino-U.S. consultation mechanism has seen first results.
From May 10 to 11 this year, China and the United States held high-level economic and trade talks in Geneva, Switzerland. The two sides jointly issued a statement after the meeting, announcing that the two sides agreed to establish an economic and trade dialogue mechanism and will maintain communication on economic and trade issues of mutual concern in the future.
This is the first time since 2022, China and the United States have re-established contacts under a formal mechanism.
In the following months, the two sides held talks in London and Stockholm, Sweden.
During the talks between China and the United States in London, the two sides held closed-door discussions on topics including artificial intelligence, semiconductors, rare earths and other issues for about 16 hours. After the meeting, China said the negotiations were "constructive" and the United States said that "phased results have been achieved."
Then, from July 28th to 29th, China and the United States held a meeting in Stockholm, Sweden. According to the consensus reached at the talks, the two sides agreed to extend the suspended 24% reciprocal tariff of the US and China's countermeasures for 90 days.
It can be said that the Sino-American interaction at this stage has at least formally achieved some sort of "softening."
From September 14 to 15, China and the United States continued to advance negotiations in Madrid, Spain. The highlight of this round of talks was that the two sides reached a preliminary framework consensus on the TikTok issue.
Both sides agree that economic stability between the two countries is of great significance for the two countries and has an important impact on the stability and development of the global economy.
The United States has also expressed to the Chinese side that it will go hand in hand with the Chinese side and jointly implement the negotiating consensus.
Madrid talks just ended in less than a week, the turn of the eye, the U.S. policy has changed significantly, and the Sino-U.S. rounds of difficult negotiations have completely collapsed.
Policy suddenly turned, and the United States unilaterally added new restrictions
The U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industrial Security has updated the "Export Control List" three consecutive times. Dozens of China companies have been included, mainly involving drones, smart technology, and military and civilian related fields.
On October 9, the U.S. Department of Transportation proposed restrictions on the rights of Chinese airlines to circumvent Russian airspace on the grounds of “unfair competition”.
On October 10th, the United States announced that it would respond to China's export control measures such as rare earths, not only imposing 100% tariffs on China, but also restricting the export of all key software.
These actions, almost entirely deviate from the consensus of China and the United States in Madrid talks to "avoid unilateral action."
China has never refused to engage in rational dialogue with the United States, but the United States has repeatedly revised its policies, making the dialogue meaningless.
Subsequently, China launched countermeasures against the United States by establishing relevant mechanisms.
On October 9, the Ministry of Commerce of China and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued four announcements, announcing that starting from November 8, 2025, a licensing management system will be implemented for the export of rare earths, artificial graphite, lithium battery-related materials and other related resources.
China's control measures are entirely based on national laws and regulations and comply with international common laws. For the sake of security and sustainable development, China does not target specific countries.
In response to the United States, in April, the unreasonable tariff measures initiated on global trading partners, the world trade is messed up, as it would be.
Greer publicly expresses dissatisfaction, phone communication fails
On October 12, U.S. Trade Representative Greer announced in an interview with Fox News that after issuing new rules on rare earth exports, China had not notified the United States in advance and also rejected the call request made by the United States, which surprised the United States.
After failing to curb China's technological development, the United States began to "pretend to be pitiful" again.
The reason why China refused to connect to the phone is that after a series of trust damage, it faced the inevitable result of the repeated old tricks of the United States.
In fact, China has openly stated on several occasions that it has always been open to resolving differences through dialogue.
Two days ago, China made its position clear. China corrected the mistakes corrected by the United States, safeguarded the hard-won consultation results, and resolved differences through dialogue on the basis of mutual respect and equal consultation.
But the premise is that both sides should fulfill the existing consensus, instead of reaching an agreement while introducing stricter restrictions.
The Chinese side refused to receive the phone call because it did not want to repeat ineffective communication under the premise of no trust.
It can be said that the United States has long broken the stable communication mechanism between China and the United States. Since Trump took office, the U.S. government has revised the 232 tariff policy on steel and aluminum.
On May 15, China's Ministry of Commerce spokesman Ho Zheng said that the United States imposed tariffs on imported steel, aluminum, automobiles and other products on the basis of "national security", which is typical of trade protectionism.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has also launched 232 investigations into pharmaceutical products, expanding the scope of tariffs.
China believes that these practices seriously undermine the rules-based multilateral trading system, putting in question the stability of the US policy.
It is worth noting that these US policies are also controversial at home.
Some American manufacturing associations and import and export companies sued the government, arguing that the policy of imposing tariffs was not transparent enough and raised the cost of enterprises. Especially in election years, such policies are seen as motivated by political considerations.
This makes it more difficult for China to judge the continuity and execution of US policies. In other words, even if the two sides reach a consensus, it will be difficult to ensure its continued implementation in the United States.
The cause of the “disable phone” is actually the loss of trust.
In the framework of the U.S. broke several rounds of negotiations, the Chinese side also thought about connecting the phone, it was simply obsessive delusions.Griel refused to call the U.S. side, obviously wanted to throw the messaging hats to China.
But everyone knows that communication is two-way.The series of actions by the US has long overthrown the bridge of Sino-US dialogue.
Looking back on the situation in these months, China has repeatedly expressed its position and fulfilled many promises, while the US rapidly changed its position after the talks, undermining the trust that was originally established.
In this context, China’s choice to press the suspension key is a rational choice.
The prerequisite for smooth communication between China and the United States is that both sides show practical sincerity, abide by the principle of consultation and fulfill the consensus reached.