On May 30 (local time), former U.S. President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social, aggressively accusing China of “completely violating” the initial trade agreement reached with the United States. He claimed that China had broken its commitment to suspend retaliatory tariffs on American goods and threatened to take further action in response.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer echoed Trump’s accusations during an interview with CNBC on Friday morning. Greer stated that the United States is “very concerned” about what he described as China’s failure to comply with the interim trade agreement. He further emphasized that “the U.S. has indeed fulfilled its obligations, while China is slowly adhering to the terms,” calling the situation “completely unacceptable and in need of resolution.”
Previously, on Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also commented in an interview with Fox News that trade negotiations with China had “somewhat stalled.”
Looking back, on May 12, China and the United States had reached an agreement to suspend most of the tariffs imposed on each other’s imports for 90 days. This temporary truce came after the Trump administration imposed steep tariffs on Chinese imports, prompting swift retaliatory measures from China.
Now, however, the Trump administration appears to have reversed its stance, unilaterally accusing China of breaching the agreement without clear justification—prompting speculation about its true intentions.
CNBC has reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. for comment. The future direction of the U.S.-China trade relationship remains uncertain and closely watched by global observers.
U.S. Moves to Block Huawei Chips
On May 13, 2025, the U.S. Department of Commerce officially announced the repeal of the Biden administration’s AI export liberalization rules and unveiled three additional policy measures to strengthen global semiconductor export controls.
Key measures include:
Declaring that the use of Huawei Ascend chips anywhere in the world violates U.S. export control regulations;
Warning the public about the potential consequences of allowing U.S.-made AI chips to be used in training or inference activities involving Chinese AI models;
Issuing new guidelines to American companies on how to protect their supply chains from circumvention tactics.
Analysts suggest that this pressure-plus-negotiation approach reflects Trump’s typical negotiating style, but they argue that such tactics are ultimately destined to fail.
U.S.-China to Hold Talks This Week
Meanwhile, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told the media on June 1 that the U.S. and China are expected to hold new talks this week focused on tariffs.
According to Hassett, both sides have maintained daily communications. Negotiation teams led by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and their Chinese counterparts are in regular dialogue in hopes of making progress.
Last Thursday, in response to a U.S. court ruling blocking Trump’s attempt to impose universal tariffs, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated that “there are no winners in a trade war.” China also stressed that protectionist measures ultimately harm all parties involved and urged the United States to “completely lift the erroneous unilateral tariffs.”
