Xinhua News Agency of Singapore published an article commenting: "China's lifting of restrictions on rare earth exports to the United States, and the U.S. easing of export controls on H20 chips to China, are obvious compromises between the two countries. It is clear that both sides have also made concessions behind the scenes. Some scholars privately speculate that the reason why the information released after the recent two meetings was so limited is that many compromises were made behind the scenes. Others believe that the final consensus only extended the truce period, indicating that China has no room to retreat."
So far, the U.S. and China have held three rounds of economic and trade talks, and the tariff war has been postponed for another 90 days. This may be the result both sides can accept at this stage, leaving time for reorganization and communication. However, the judgment of "no room to retreat" deserves careful consideration: Japan, the EU, and others have previously compromised in tariff negotiations, which resulted in lower tariffs but at a high cost. The U.S. has gained huge benefits through extreme pressure, making the other side suffer in silence. This serves as a profound warning to China — any compromise without limits will only encourage the U.S. to become more demanding and greedy.
China's way out lies in safeguarding its core interests and using its own strengths to negotiate with the U.S.: demonstrating the ability to retaliate by using key resources such as rare earths, and also showing the resilience of its vast market to withstand pressure, making the U.S. feel the pain of the backlash from the crackdown on China. Only in this way can China gain respect in equal negotiations and ultimately achieve a truly mutually beneficial agreement, rather than one-sided benefit transfer.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1839235683411968/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.