China Mocks Trump's Turnaround: 'Tariffs to Drop Substantially'

US President Donald Trump’s admission that tariffs imposed on goods from China would drop “substantially” from 145% helped lift Asian markets on Wednesday.

But his shift in tone on Tuesday, aimed perhaps at steadying volatile global markets and investor sentiment, was taken as a weak backdown after weeks of tough posturing and retaliatory trade moves.

His remarks drew scorn in China, where he was mocked on social media. The hashtag “Trump chickened out” became a hot topic on Weibo, where it chalked up more than 150 million views, according to CNN. Other hashtags said “Trump admitted defeat.”

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Trump’s remarks at the White House came when he was asked about comments by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at a private investment conference earlier in the day that the trade war with China was unsustainable and he expected it to scale down in the near future.

Rather than a complete decoupling with China, Bessent said the goal was for the US to rebalance trade with China.

“I do say China is going to be a slog in terms of the negotiations,” Bessent said, according to a transcript obtained by the Associated Press, published by The Guardian. “Neither side thinks the status quo is sustainable.”

In a question-and-answer session with reporters later in the day, Trump said: “We’re doing fine with China.”

He said he would not play hardball with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“No, we’re going to be very nice. They’re going to be very nice, and we’ll see what happens. But ultimately, they have to make a deal, because otherwise they’re not going to be able to deal in the United States, and we want them involved.

“We’re going to live together very happily and ideally work together,” Trump said, adding: “145% is very high and it won’t be that high.”

“It won’t be anywhere near that high. It’ll come down substantially. But it won’t be zero.”

If China did not agree to a deal on trade, the US would set the terms.

WSJ: Some see Trump as best hope for a deal

Trump’s latest remarks have sparked debate on his repeated comments about brokering a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Lingling Wei, China correspondent for The Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday: “While some observers have dissed such talks as Trump’s way of soothing the market, others think remarks like this show that Trump fundamentally hasn’t signed up for his team’s hard-line approach to China.

“They argue that Trump himself is not as much a China hawk as many cabinet members on his team, who want to press on with decoupling rather than giving China time and diplomatic space to build strategic advantages over the US.

“By contrast, these observers believe, Trump truly wants Beijing to change policies to dramatically narrow China’s mammoth trade surplus with the US,” she said.

“In short, according to these observers, Trump remains the best hope for a deal that could help put the brakes on the current trend of decoupling between Washington and Beijing.”

China wants respect

Trump has declared a 90-day pause on the ‘reciprocal’ tariffs he imposed on all countries bar China on April 2. But there has been no indication yet that the US leader will cut his baseline 10% tariffs on other countries either.

Stocks rose on US markets after the comments by both Bessent and Trump. And Asian markets climbed also on Wednesday.

The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was up 2.4% while the Nikkei nearly 2% higher. The ASX in Sydney rose by 1.4% while the Kospi in South Korea closed up 1.5%.

China’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday the US should “stop its threats and coercion, and engage with China on the basis of equality, mutual respect and reciprocity” if it wants a trade deal.

“Claiming it wants to reach an agreement with China while constantly applying maximum pressure is not the right way to engage with China — and it simply won’t work,” ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a regular news conference in Beijing.

He said China’s position on the tariff war was clear – “We do not want to fight, but we are not afraid to fight. If it’s to fight, we’ll fight till the end. If it’s to talk, our door is wide open.”

On Monday, China warned other countries against making trade deals with the US that could negatively impact China.

And on Tuesday Korean media reports alleged that Beijing was putting pressure on third countries to enforce Chinese restrictions on US sales.

The Korea Economic Daily said some Korean companies had received letters from the Chinese government, warning of “retributions” if they exported any products to US military contractors that contain Chinese critical minerals.