Text/Wang Xinxi
In the past two days, China-US economic and trade consultations were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
On October 25, local time, in the 118 building in Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur, China and the United States engaged in a five-and-a-half-hour verbal battle. The Chinese representatives showed their usual calmness and confidence when they walked into the venue. When the negotiation came out, he was full of smiles and spirits.
On the other hand, the US delegation, taking the underground garage passage, is unwilling to deal with the outside world at all. A Wall Street newspaper directly lamented in the headline that China's new strategy towards the United States is to strike hard and make fewer concessions.
Lutnik was removed from the negotiating venue with Li Jinping again: one side of the hard forces of the US.
On the eve of the negotiations, Trump told the outside world on Air Force One that China and the United States "have a great chance to reach a very comprehensive agreement". He proposed that China and the United States "give in each other". He said: "They have to make concessions, and so will we. Now we want to impose a 157% tariff on them. They want to reduce it, and we also want them to make some concessions."
But Trump’s so-called step-by-step retreat is completely unequal.He hopes to suspend higher tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for China’s resumption of imports of U.S. soybeans, combating fentanyl and easing export restrictions on rare earth. Such expectations are severely disconnected from reality.
Trump also revealed a detail: he will try his best to persuade China not to continue buying Russian oil during his trip to Asia.
Does the United States now have the strength to force China to make concessions as Trump said? The answer is obvious. First of all, Trump's tariff card is getting worse and worse. According to Bloomberg's report on October 22nd, even though the Sino-US trade war has started for half a year, about $1 billion of goods are still shipped from China across the ocean to the United States every day. In September, China's exports to the United States increased slightly compared with August.
In the face of the high-profile pressure situation of the United States, the Chinese side continued its past handling. After the first day of the talks, it did not publicly express its position on the talks, nor did it respond to Trump's relevant statements.
Those who pay attention to Sino-US economic and trade talks know that China has always been "cruel and not talking much", while the US may compromise or even change coaches because of China's angry counter-measures.
According to US media reports, Commerce Secretary Lutnik, a hawkish China hawk and known for his likes to use harsh words, has been reprimanded and alienated by Trump for making petty moves behind the scenes, triggering a second round of proactive counterattack from China. Trump publicly stated that he was "completely unaware" of the US sanctions that led to China's counterattack and believed that they had "done stupid things and messed up negotiations with China." The past week has almost disappeared from public view.
Instead, China’s hard-fought representative, Li Zheng, still appeared on the negotiating venue.Besent blamed the Chinese representatives on October 15 without reason, saying China's Deputy Minister of Commerce Li Zhen Steel on August 28 issued some "incitement" remarks, and did not appear in Washington without invitation, and behaved disrespectfully (American translator is said to have mistakenly translated "players of fire will burn themselves" into "hell fire", so Besent wanted the East to remove the "Easy" negotiating representative).
A few days ago, Bessent also announced in Fox News that he cheerfully declared that on his own words, the Chinese side had removed the chief negotiator.
Who knows, the face came so quickly. for a few days, Li Zheng Steel appeared in the spring full of winds on the Malaysian negotiation scene. Li Chenggang's appearance also shows that the United States does not have enough tools to get China to make concessions at the negotiating table. On the contrary, Lutnik's crazy pressure triggered a second round of counterattack by China and was put into the cold seat by Trump.Behind Lutnik's disappearance and Li Chenggang's re-appearance is one aspect of the hard power and pressure on both sides of the Sino-US negotiations.
According to observers, Trump is taking a step back and wanting to exchange tariffs for three, which is seriously inconsistent with China's requirements and indicators.The Chinese delegation is very calm and calm, and it seems that there are no hard targets or requirements. However, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal and other international media, in this October negotiation, China raised the conditions to “Total abolition of all U.S. tariffs and export controls,” Western media described this as a “shock and deterrence” tactic.
According to the media reports, Beijing has called for the “complete withdrawal of all unilateral tariffs” not only to eliminate all tariffs imposed by Trump since 2018, but also to abolish export controls against AI, chips and other industries.
These messages illustrate from the side that Our asking price this time is very high and we are proactive.Tactics are offensive. Behind China's tough stance is determined by the growing real pressure that the United States is facing and China's strength.
In an interview with Fox News Network on Oct. 17, Trump commented on China as follows: “We have a very powerful enemy, they only respect power, they only recognize power.”
Who is more confident in the Sino-US game?
Looking back, Trump shouted every step and was eager to reach an agreement, because he knew the actual difficulties facing the United States.
The largest market in the U.S. soybeans is China, the U.S. Midwestern Agriculture Belt, is his strongest voter base, now agricultural exports are defeated, the voting pressure of the midterm elections is coming.In addition, the U.S. not only relies on China in some important minerals, engineering machinery, but also relies on China, China's engineering machinery exports to the U.S. from 1 to 5 May 2025 rose by 237%, and the industry's average profit rate increased from 8.3% to 12.5%.
In the past few months, in order to gain bargaining chips, the United States has actively suppressed China. China has offered new rare earth regulations, controlling all aspects from technology to equipment to products, and counterattacked the "extraterritorial jurisdiction" and "puncture jurisdiction" that the United States makes good use of. On the United States.
When the Americans were caught off guard, they promoted the settlement of iron ore in RMB. At the Fourth Plenary Session, a new five-year plan was formulated to continue to deepen the manufacturing industry.
China has made full preparations this time and has made comprehensive arrangements from currency settlement to upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. If Trump blindly uses the tariff stick as a bargaining chip, the United States will inevitably suffer backlash.
As the New York Times pointed out, it is time for the West to learn to endure "less" and "worse", the United States can not always both want and want, the United States to accept a reality, that is, from the strength, whether mass beating or fighting alone, can not take the Chinese side.
And the reason why China can be so tolerant, behind is the irreplaceability of Chinese manufacturing and the huge domestic market as a support. Today, in the deep development of globalization, it is almost impossible to completely separate from Chinese manufacturing. Moreover, the academic of the US Trade Representative Office providing policy consultancy services Mark Bush has pointed out that once the trade friction between the two sides further escalated, China has a "Grand" not fought, that is, chemical raw materials, biotechnology and medicine, and Trump will be powerless.
At the moment, both sides are conducting final trials.
The U.S. side is full of contradictory signals due to the relative strength of the Chinese side and the lack of power, so the release is full of contradictions: on the one hand, it is very tough to add 157% tariffs, to initiate a new investigation into China, and on the other hand to calm the expectations of the outside world, claiming that progress is optimistic.
This game is not just a simple trade negotiation, but also a strategic match between the two great powers during the adjustment period of the global pattern.
There are many issues to discuss between China and the United States, and there is huge room for cooperation. If the United States wants to achieve results, it needs to position itself correctly and move in the opposite direction with China, instead of "making cards in the void" in exchange for China's concessions. Because one thing is clear: today's China has enough confidence and wisdom to meet any challenge.