China and US ‘have not engaged in consultations or negotiations regarding tariff issues’, foreign ministry says, as Beijing keeps up denials
China has rejected US President Donald Trump’s claims that he received a phone call from Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The Trump administration has repeatedly asserted over the past week that the US president had spoken by phone with Xi and trade talks had taken place.
“[Xi]’s called. And I don’t think that’s a sign of weakness on his behalf,” Trump told Time magazine in an interview early last week, before repeating his assertion on Friday.
Rebutting the claims on Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said: “To my knowledge, there has been no phone call between the two heads of state recently.
“I would like to reiterate that China and the US have not engaged in consultations or negotiations regarding tariff issues.”
During the interview with Time on Tuesday, Trump insisted that Xi had called him about ongoing tariff and trade negotiations.
But when asked to provide details, he only said: “We all want to make deals.”
“On behalf of the American people, I own the store, and I set prices,” he added. “And I’ll say, if you want to shop here [in the US], this is what you have to pay.”
Trump also said that he would not initiate such a call and his administration was engaged in active talks with China to strike a deal.
Beijing’s foreign ministry on Thursday rejected all claims of US-China trade negotiations as “fake news”. “We will fight, if fight we must. Our doors are open, if the US wants to talk. Dialogue and negotiation must be based on equality, respect and mutual benefit,” Guo said.
On Friday, hours before the Time interview was published, Guo urged the US to “stop creating confusion”.
But Trump repeated his claim, saying on Friday that he had spoken to Xi “numerous times”. But he did not offer details on when the talks took place or what was discussed.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that China might be denying that negotiations were ongoing because it was “playing to a different audience”, but there was a path forward for de-escalation.
“[I] had interaction with my Chinese counterpart,” Bessent said during a TV interview, referring to the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington last week. “But it was more of the traditional things like financial stability, global economic early warnings.”
“I don’t know if President Trump has spoken with President Xi.”
In Monday’s comments, Guo repeated Beijing’s stand on the matter. “China’s position on the tariff war is crystal-clear: there are no winners in a tariff or trade war,” he said.
“If the US truly wants to resolve differences through dialogue and negotiation, it should stop threatening and blackmailing and engage in dialogue with the Chinese side on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit.”
The back and forth showed the Trump administration had misjudged Beijing, which had time on its side, a leading Chinese expert on US-China relations said.
According to Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University, Washington appeared ill-prepared for the situation created by Trump’s tariff war.
China, on the other hand, was well-prepared and wanted to send out a very clear message to the US: “Don’t play the game again,” Wu said on Friday at the annual Shanghai Forum.
“I think time is on our side,” Wu, who is also director of the Centre for American Studies at Fudan, said during a session on China-US relations. “[This is] because we don’t feel it is urgent to strike a deal with the US side.”
He added that while the two sides might have meaningful contact at some point, it was certainly “not going to be an easy process”.
