[Breaking News] China Responds to US 'Trade Agreement Violation' Claim: "Baseless... Will Take Decisive Action"

Donald Trump, the President of the United States, claimed that China violated the 'tariff war' truce agreement reached between the US and China last month, to which China responded by asserting that it was the US that actually breached the agreement.

A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce stated in a statement posted on its website on the 2nd, "China has treated the Geneva economic and trade talks agreement (last month) with responsibility, strictly implemented it, and actively defended it," adding, "China's protection of its rights and interests is unwavering, and its fulfillment of the agreement is sincere."

The spokesperson continued, "On the other hand, looking at the US, even after the Geneva meeting, it has continued to introduce a number of new discriminatory restrictions against China," and pointed out, "Among these are the announcement of export controls for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, the suspension of sales of electronic design automation (EDA) software, and the cancellation of visas for Chinese students."

The spokesperson further stated, "The US unilaterally and constantly creates new economic and trade frictions, increasing the uncertainty and instability of bilateral economic and trade relations, but instead of self-reflection, it blames others, unjustifiably accusing China of violating the agreement—which seriously distorts the facts," declaring, "China firmly rejects these baseless accusations."

The Chinese government’s statement on this day was aimed at a post President Trump made on the social media platform Truth Social on the 30th of last month.

He referred to the agreement reached through the US-China meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland on the 10th–11th of last month, in which both countries agreed to reduce tariffs by 115% points for 90 days, and said, "The bad news is that China has completely violated the agreement with us."

The United States’ position appears to be that, since China promised to suspend and lift various tariff and non-tariff measures since April, it should also lift export controls on seven types of rare earths to the US. However, on this day, China stated it was faithfully implementing the US-China agreement but did not mention rare earth export controls.

Eunji Cha, Hankyung.com reporter chachacha@hankyung.com