For the U.S. and China, the Only Talking Is About Whether to Talk

As commercial tensions exploded among the largest economies in the world, communication between the United States and China has been so unstable that the two superpowers cannot also agree whether they are talking at all.

In an economic session of the White House this week, the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, dead several times when he was pressed for the recent statement of President Trump that President Xi Jinping of China had called him. Allhoug high economic officials could generally be aware of such high -level conversations, Mr. Bessent insisted that he was not registering the president’s calls.

“I have many jobs in the White House; executing the switchboard is not one of them,” joked Mr. Berrot.

But the apparent silence between the United States and China is a serious matter for the global economy.

The markets look at the mystery of whether discussions are being carried out in the back channel. Althegh, the two countries have not cut all ties, it seems that they darkened when it comes to tariffs.

“China and the United States do not have heroes consultations or negotiations about the issue of tariffs,” said Guo Jiakun, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a press conference last Friday. “The United States should not confuse the public.”

However, the China Ministry of Commerce said Friday that I was now considering having conversations with the Trump administration after repeated attempts at high US officials to begin negotiations. The officials of the White House Department and the Treasury did not respond to requests for comments on whether such reach had occurred.

The confrontation about when and if Washington and Beijing will hold economic conversations as the Trump administration is fighting to reach commercial agreements with diseases from countries that could face high rates. On April 2, Trump imposed what he calls “reciprocal” tariffs in the countries that he believes they have an unfair trade and other economic barriers. Those levies, which sent the looting global markets, stopped for 90 days to give countries time to reach agreements with the United States.

China, which reached a large commercial pact not complied with the duration of Mr. Trump in his first term, has indicated that he has little interest in talking about a new agreement until the United States returns what he considers a flood of aggressive and unfair commercial measures.

Mr. Trump increased tariffs on Chinese imports to a minimum or 145 percent last month, in an attempt to force China to commercial negotiations. Chinese officials responded by issuing their own tariffs on American products and holding exports to the United States of minerals and magnets that are necessary for many industries.

The economic cost of the TAT for TAT is beginning to become clear. The International Monetary Fund last month reduced its growth perspective for both countries and the world, warning that tariffs had made a more likely recession. Government data published this week showed the slowdown in the activity of the Chinese factory in April and the growth of the first quarter in the weakening of the United States.

Duration A cabinet meeting on Wednesday at the White House, Trump acknowledged that children in the United States can end with less dolls that cost more. But he insisted that he would continue to press for a “fair agreement” with China, which he described as the “main candidate for the main supply of Destripper.”

The Trump administration focuses on commercial agreements with approximately 18 or the most important commercial partners in the United States that are subject to reciprocal tariffs. Mr. Besent indicated that conversations with China would operate on a separate track of the other negotiations.

The Treasury Secretary is expected to take the initiative of China’s negotiations, while Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce, supervises most of the other conversations. However, Trump has not formally appointed or authorized an American official to negotiate about the Heralf with China, leaving Chinese officials to believe that the Trump administration is not ready or is serious about commercial conversations.

Mr. Besent, who received an introductory call with his Chinese counterpart in February, said he had informal conversations with Chinese officials about issues such as the financial stability held by spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank last week. He said they talked about more “traditional things” but did not say that trade was discussed. The Department of the Treasury did not issue a summary of any meeting with Chinese officials.

In an interview with Fox News this week, Jamieson Greer, the United States commercial representative, said that he with Virtualy for about an hour of Chinese counterpart before April 2, but that there were no legs on his legs since Trump announced his “day of release day” tariffs.

Trump has suggested that Mr. XI should call him to begin the conversations personally, pointing out his strong personal relationship. But this is not how China generally manages important economic issues. The United States and China traditionally resolve their economic differences through a structured dialogue with formal meetings and working groups led by a senior economic official in each country.

“This very personalist approach to President Trump, who wants to negotiate directly with President XI, does not coincide with the Chinese system at all,” said Craig Allen, a companion of the China Analysis Center of the Asia Society Institute for China’s analysis. “In the Chinese system, these things are carefully negotiated in advance, they increase multiple channels and are highly controlled and written, and when it reaches the leader’s stage it is highly choreographed.”

Mr. Allen, who until recently was the president of the United States Business Council, suggested that China probably took into account the acrimony of the meeting that Mr. Trump had President Volodymyr Zelensky or Ukraine in February and that Mr. XI would distrust a situation that could lead to a public confrontation with Trump.

Duration of the Biden administration, the officials of the Department of Treasury, worked with China to create economic and financial work groups of medium level members who intended to avoid tensions about tariffs and export controls to get out of control in the spiral. These lines of communication do not seem to be in use in the Trump administration, which tends to see them as a waste of time.

“That is exactly the type of these that these groups help do: help make sure that the policy you implement is well adapted to achieve the goal and communicate to the other side what you are trying to achieve Tie Late and You Latee -Late and you -Late and you -Late -Late Message that was not intended to be transmitted,” Brent Neiman said, a University of Chicago of Chicago of Chicago that was the deputy of Biden.

Duration The first mandate of Mr. Trump, the president initially assigned the Secretary of the Treasury at that time, Steven T. Mnuchin, to bring commercial delegations to China. He later appointed Robert E. Lighthizer, his commercial representative, who was seen as more aggressive, to supervise the conversations.

Veterans of that commercial war believe that the current point could be more prolonged because tariffs are higher and both parties believe they are winning. If the growth of the United States continues to decrease while prices begin to increase, it could increase the urgency so that Mr. Trump obtains real conversations with China.

“I think we have to give them an elegant ramp,” said Wilbur Ross, who served as Trump’s Secretary of Commerce who fulfilled his first mandate. “Whether it is someone of us who calls them first or if it is simply to designate who will be our main representative, it can be at some point that we need to make a symbolic gesture.

Michael Pillsbury, a China’s main advisor for the duration of Mr. Trump his first mandate, said Beijing was probably waiting to see how the agreements that the Trump administration reaches with other nations such as India and Japan before being directly involved.

“They do not want to start formal conversations because first know the final result of others,” said Pillsbury, who talks to Chinese officials and officials.

He pointed out that the commercial fight has become an important national pride point for China and that he believes that Mr. Trump’s demands, which Beijing does not fully understand, will soften as US markets turn and the mid -period elections in the United States approach.

“The delay is very interested, and a quick agreement is very interested in Trump,” said Pillsbury.