With a word, the Chinese representative perfectly summed up the talks, and the US also announced to give up the tariff increase to China at 100%, and Western media seemed to finally understand China's strategic patience.
CCTV news reports show that the fifth round of economic and trade consultations between China and the United States in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has ended, lasting for two days and more than 10 hours, mainly discussing a package of issues such as tariff ceasefire, rare earth control and agricultural products trade.
There was no stalemate of rhetoric, no embarrassment of breaking up on unhappy terms. Instead, there were rare "constructive discussions" and "preliminary consensus reached" in the briefings of both sides.
He not only acknowledged that “Sino-U.S. economic and trade relations are the most influential bilateral relations in the world”, but also stressed that he is willing to resolve differences through “equality and respect”, and even personally confirmed that he is no longer considering imposing 100% tariffs on China.
They believe that this round of negotiations between China and the United States has formulated a "very successful framework", followed by deliberations between the two sides, and Trump is also very optimistic, publicly saying that he is "confident of reaching a comprehensive agreement with China".
However, it is worth noting that after this negotiation, Bescent never mentioned the Chinese representative Li Chenggang.
You know, a few days before this round of negotiations, he also publicly declared that Representative Li Chenggang was "very rude, uninvited, and strong-spoken", etc., but obviously, he did not expect that even after this, China still sent Representative Li Chenggang to negotiate.
It turns out that the power of Li Zheng Kong representative is indeed strong.
After the negotiations, Representative Li Chenggang said that after intensive discussions, the two sides reached a preliminary consensus and also summarized the negotiations in one sentence: the United States expressed its position firmly, and China was firm in safeguarding its interests.
According to the analysis, in a short sentence, the implied meaning is very clear: this round of negotiations must have gone through a fierce confrontation, and the US must have slapped the table again, while the Chinese side firmly safeguarded its interests and must have followed suit. The two sides can't talk, but they still have to continue talking.
Per it was the face rejected again, so after the negotiations, Besent determined not to mention the representatives of Li, and rushed out of the land directly.
On the whole, there is a high probability that China and the United States have failed to achieve any substantive results on key issues this time. The United States failed to force China to make concessions on core issues, while China continued the strategy of "giving face and protecting the foundation": not only allowing Besent to explain to Trump, but also maintained the strategic bottom line of rare earth control and technological independence.
Next, China and the United States will continue to enter the "truce period", and the United States will no longer consider raising taxes by 100%. This also shows that they realize that they have no cards to play and there are no winners in the trade war.
The British Economist once pointed out before the negotiations that Trump attempted to hurt the Chinese manufacturing industry through a tariff war, but rejected the victory tide toward China.
First, China has the “conflict and escalation dominance.”
In April this year, U.S. stocks fell sharply after Trump announced the increase in tariffs, forcing the United States to suspend implementation; in October, China tightened rare earth export controls, and Trump threatened to add a 100% tariff, but withdrew the order after protests from the industry.
This repeated leap reveals that the Trump administration’s decisions are not based on strategy, but are constrained by short-term market reactions and personal emotions.The Chinese side has transformed the U.S. “extreme pressure” into “self-consumption” through layered countermeasures.
Second, China’s countermeasures move from “reciprocal” to “precise strikes.”
In June, the United States threatened to cut off the supply of civil aviation engines in China, and China immediately fought back by refusing to buy soybeans, pointing directly to Trump's agricultural state ticket warehouse; In September, Bescent demanded to relax rare earth controls, and China immediately launched antitrust investigations into U.S. companies such as Google and Nvidia, targeting the Wall Street capital camp.
These measures not only target Trump's political fundamentals, but also contain the golden alliance behind him, forcing the US to weigh the domestic rebound before taking action.
Third, Trump's offensive unexpectedly strengthened China's "independence" consensus.
When accusations such as "overcapacity" and "destroying the international division of labor" came to us, there was a debate in China about whether it was necessary to retain the whole industrial system. However, half a year after the trade war, these voices completely dissipated.
The whole people realized that in an era when superpowers are arming the economy, only "feed in their hands" can "do not panic."Trump's tariff bar, instead, became a catalyst for China's industrial chain upgrading.
Some analysts pointed out that the key to the high efficiency of Kuala Lumpur negotiations lies in the fact that China has shown the "trump card" of rare earths. 92% of the world's rare earth refining capacity is in the hands of China, and rare earths are not only the lifeline of high-tech industries such as chips, military industry, and new energy, but also a strategic resource that the United States cannot replace in the short term.
This time, it is a helpless move for the United States to voluntarily give up the threat of "100% tariff" in exchange for limited concessions from China on rare earths and agricultural products.
At the same time, China has always maintained two bottom lines: first, the United States must relax high-tech export controls, and second, China's rare earth control framework will never be loosened.
This "dynamic deterrent" strategy enables China to adjust its counter-strengths at any time according to the U.S. attitude, avoiding full disconnection and preventing the loss of strategic assets.
To put it bluntly, the "preliminary consensus" reached by China and the United States this time is essentially a deal in which each gets what he needs: the United States needs a stable supply of rare earths and access to the Chinese market, while China needs the loosening of the technological blockade and the normalization of the trade environment.
But the core contradiction remains unresolved-the United States is unwilling to give up its strategy of containing China through science and technology, and it is impossible for China to exchange its core interests for short-term agreements.
Therefore, the Kuala Lumpur negotiations are not the end, but the warm-up of the next bigger game, and the real test is yet to come.
First of all, the APEC Summit at the end of October may become a meeting stage for China and the United States. Can the two sides transform the "framework consensus" into specific terms by then? Judging from historical experience, there are many cases in which the United States changes its mind at the last minute.
Secondly, the friction between China and the United States in the security field continues to spill over-the US aircraft carrier "Nimitz" has returned to the Western Pacific, and the situation in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea has heated up, all of which may become variables in trade negotiations.
Throughout the entire negotiation process, China's confidence comes from the strategic upgrade of counter-measures, the successful breakthrough of market diversification, and the acceleration of technological independence. All these have greatly reduced the effect of the U.S. blockade.
As the Chinese delegation stressed, "Sino-U.S. merit is two-way, fight is wounded", but the premise of "merit" is always mutual respect.
The ten-hour talks in Kuala Lumpur proved one thing: when the United States tried to solve the problem with the logic of force, China demonstrated with force – equality, not giving, is fighting out.