China’s transformation from courting trump to ‘never yield’ tariff defiance

China’s transformation from courting trump to ‘never yield’ tariff defiance

During the first Trump administration, Beijing had several high-level channels of communication; even after Trump was re-elected on the promise of high tariffs, relations with Beijing got off to a polite start; but ties soured after Trump’s tariff announcement and China has taken a ‘wartime footing’.

China has put civilian government officials in Beijing on “wartime footing” and ordered a diplomatic charm offensive aimed at encouraging other countries to push back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, according to four people familiar with the matter.

Communist Party officials have played a leading role in framing China’s response, one of the people said, with government spokespeople posting defiant clips on social media featuring former leader Mao Zedong.

In the clip, Mao, whose oldest son died in the war, says peace is up to the Americans.

“No matter how long this war is going to last, we’ll never yield,” he said. “We’ll fight until we completely triumph.”

As part of the “wartime” posture, the details of which are being reported by Reuters for the first time, bureaucrats in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Commerce have been ordered to cancel vacation plans and keep mobile phones switched on around the clock, two of the people said. Departments covering the U.S. have also been beefed up, including with officials who worked on China’s response to Mr. Trump’s first term, they said. The combative all-of-government approach after Mr. Trump’s “Liberation Day” salvo marked a hard turn for Beijing, which had tried to avoid a spiralling trade war. For months, Chinese diplomats had tried to establish a high-level channel of communication with Mr. Trump’s administration to defend what China’s Cabinet has described in state media campaigns as a “win-win” trading relationship.

Optimistic Chinese observers even held out hope for a grand bargain with Trump over trade, TikTok – and perhaps even Taiwan.

Four people described how Beijing’s diplomats have been engaging other governments targeted by Trump tariffs, including sending letters seeking cooperation to several countries. Longstanding U.S. allies in Europe, Japan, and South Korea have also been contacted, two people said.

Most of the people spoke on condition of anonymity to describe confidential government deliberations.

“China is a responsible major country. We stand up against hegemony, not only to safeguard our own rightful interests, but also to uphold the common interests of the international community,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a faxed statement.

It added that, “This trade war was started by the U.S. and imposed on China... If the U.S. really wants to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiations, it should stop applying extreme pressure. Any dialogue should be established on the basis of equality, mutual respect, and mutual benefit.”

The South Korean and Japanese embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on talks between their countries and China.

After the initial Chinese retaliation, Mr. Trump said: “China played it wrong, they panicked — the one thing they cannot afford to do!” He has also suggested that Beijing wanted to make a deal but “they just do not know how quite to go about it.”

U.S. officials have also blamed China for the impasse because its trillion-dollar trade surplus with the world is the result of what they see as abuses of the global commerce system that have not been successfully addressed through years of negotiations.

Even after Mr. Trump was elected on the promise of high tariffs, relations with Beijing got off to a polite start. Mr. Trump had invited Chinese leader Xi Jinping to his inauguration, which was eventually attended by Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng.

Things started deteriorating soon after.

During the first Trump administration, Beijing had several high-level channels of communication, most notably between then-ambassador Cui Tiankai and Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

There is not an equivalent channel this time around, according to a Beijing official familiar with Sino-American ties, adding that China was not sure who spoke for Mr. Trump on their relationship.

A Trump administration official said that the U.S. had “made clear to China that we want working-level contact to continue... but will not engage for the sake of engagement and in dialogues that do not advance American interests.”

Chinese ambassador to the U.S. Xie Feng made unsuccessful attempts before the election to reach Mr. Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk, said a U.S. scholar who recently visited China for unofficial exchanges that Beijing has historically used to communicate with Washington policymakers. Mr. Musk did not immediately return a request for comment.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi tried to meet Secretary of State Marco Rubio — who is sanctioned by Beijing — during a February visit to New York but did not secure a meeting. There has been no publicly disclosed exchange between the two sides’ top diplomats beyond a frosty phone call in late January.

Mr. Wang was also unsuccessful in his efforts to meet on that trip with National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, said a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Wang had held numerous talks with Mr. Waltz’s predecessor, Jake Sullivan, including an exchange that led to a rare prisoner swap.

China is also heavily focused on the domestic reaction to the tariffs, with social media users this week widely reposting an April 7 editorial in the official People’s Daily warning against panic. China has also recently started encouraging households to spend more. Beijing is aiming at shifting the engine of growth from exports to consumers at a time when the economy remains hobbled by a crisis of failed real estate development.