Beijing and Washington accused each other of violating the consensus reached during trade talks in Geneva, as both sides strengthened export controls on technology products and raw materials.
Tensions have surged again since US President Donald Trump said in a social media post on May 30 that China “has totally violated its agreement with us.”
Trump said he made a fast deal with China on May 12 because he did not want to see Chinese “civil unrest” sparked by a deterioration of the Chinese economy caused by his trade war. However, he added that he would no longer be “Mr Nice Guy.”
“Instead of reflecting on its own actions, the US has groundlessly accused China of violating the consensus, a claim that grossly distorts the facts. China firmly rejects these unjustified accusations,” an unnamed spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MoC) said Monday (June 2).
“The US has unilaterally and repeatedly provoked new economic and trade frictions, exacerbating uncertainty and instability in bilateral economic and trade relations.”
The MoC spokesperson said the US has seriously undermined the consensus reached during the China-US economic and trade talks in Geneva by introducing multiple, discriminatory, restrictive measures against China.
These measures included issuing guidance on artificial intelligence chip export controls, halting sales of chip design software to China and announcing the revocation of visas for Chinese students, including those studying technological-related fields.
The spokesperson also criticized the US for undermining the consensus reached by Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in a phone call on January 17.
In that call, Xi congratulated Trump on his reelection as president. He said confrontation and conflict should not be an option for the two countries. Trump said the US and China should get along well for years to come.
The MoC’s latest comments came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on May 29 that US-China trade negotiations are “a bit stalled.” Bessent said the two countries’ leaders must speak directly about key issues.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on May 30 that China’s reluctance to approve exports of key niche minerals is one reason why Trump said Beijing violated its side of the trade agreement reached in Geneva.
White House National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett told ABC News on June 1 that Trump and Xi could talk about trade as soon as this week.
Hassett said both sides were willing to talk, but they did not set a specific date for a conversation between the two leaders. He added that Greer’s team communicates with their Chinese counterparts daily, “trying to move the ball forward on this matter.”
It is unclear whether a Xi-Trump phone call will be possible in the short run, particularly after the recent volley of accusations. The Chinese side has not commented on the matter.
US-China joint declaration
On May 12, China and the US agreed to de-escalate their trade war by significantly lowering tariffs for each other for 90 days. The US agreed to lower its 145% tariff to 30%; China reduced its retaliatory 125% tariff to 10% after the Geneva meeting.
According to a US-China joint declaration, China also agreed to adopt all necessary administrative measures to suspend or remove the non-tariff countermeasures taken against the US since April 2, 2025.
Immediately thereafter, many Chinese pundits said China does not need to relax its key minerals export rules, as the US-China joint declaration did not state which non-tariff countermeasures would be canceled.
“The current situation is interesting. The US got a trade agreement with China but failed to get what it wanted most,” a Hebei-based columnist wrote in an article on May 13. “Tariff matters are about money, but key minerals are related to national security, and there is no room for bargaining for this.”
The writer said the Americans thought they had found China’s weak spot, but they hit a wall.
In fact, on May 9, the Office of the National Export Control Coordination Mechanism and several government departments held a meeting in Shenzhen about combating the smuggling of strategic minerals.
According to the meeting, the government will take adequate measures to promote and regulate the enforcement of export controls on strategic mineral resources. It will also enhance implementation and refine institutional frameworks regarding methods, scope, timing and intensity.
On May 19, China’s Cailian Press reported that at least six Chinese companies were granted licenses to export seven types of medium and heavy niche minerals, including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium.
The seven types of minerals are raw materials used for producing parts for fighter jets, submarines, missiles and radars. China announced the export controls on these minerals on April 4, following Trump’s imposition of reciprocal tariffs globally on Liberation Day on April 2.
Cailian Press added that obtaining a license takes 45 to 60 days, and exporters must apply for a new license if the formulas of their products change. They also need to seek approval for each shipment.
“We should adopt a dual-track strategy that bans the export of China’s key minerals to the US but relaxes the export to the European Union,” Li Jian, a Shanxi-based columnist, writes in an article on June 2.
“Practically, we will loosen our key mineral export controls for the EU companies willing to share technologies with China, such as photoresist formula and magnet designs,” Li says.
“Whoever follows the United States’ call to ban Huawei’s equipment will receive fewer niche minerals from China,” he says. “EU firms will then realise whether they should do business with the US or China.”
He says China will build facilities in friendly countries, such as Hungary, to refine its key minerals, making it difficult for the US to intervene.
Strategic decoupling
After Washington reached a trade deal with Beijing on May 12, Bessent said the US did not want a generalized decoupling from China, but rather a “strategic decoupling”, particularly in the steel, critical medicines, and semiconductor sectors.
On May 13, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security rescinded the Biden administration’s AI Diffusion Rule, and replaced it with three guidelines to forbid companies from:
-using Huawei’s Ascend chips,
-deploying US chips to help Chinese firms train their AI models, or
-re-exporting US high-end chips to China.
On May 23, the US government informed the Electronic Design Automation industry about new export controls on electronic design automation (EDA) software to China and Chinese military end-users globally. The US also suspended the supply of CFM LEAP-1C engines, which power China’s Comac C919 jets.
“What the US does overstretches the concept of national security, politicizes and weaponizes trade and tech issues, and is a malicious attempt to block and suppress China,” Lin Jin, a spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry, said on May 30.
However, he said China is ready to strengthen dialogue and cooperation on export controls with relevant countries and regions to stabilize global industrial and other supply chains.
Read: US eases trade war, pursues ‘strategic decoupling’ from China
