June 2 (UPI) — China on Monday rejected claims by U.S. President Donald Trump that it has broken the terms of the recent trade deal made between the two nations.
A Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson said in a press release that it “firmly rejects” the “unreasonable accusations” and instead alleged that the United States failed to fulfill its duties.
The statement said that China followed through in canceling or suspending “relevant tariffs and non-tariff measures” implemented in response to Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” against China and several other nations.
It also noted that despite its conciliatory actions, the Trump administration has “successively introduced a number of discriminatory restrictive measures against China” such as export control guidelines for AI chips, stopping the sale of chip design software to China, and refering to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio‘s announcements of plans to “aggressively revoke” visas of Chinese students.
“The United States has unilaterally provoked new economic and trade frictions, exacerbating the uncertainty and instability of bilateral economic and trade relations. Instead of reflecting on itself, it has turned the tables and unreasonably accused China of violating the consensus, which is seriously contrary to the facts. China firmly rejects unreasonable accusations,” China said.
“If the [United States] insists on its own way and continues to damage China’s interests, China will continue to take resolute and forceful measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.”
Trump said in a social media post on Friday that China had “totally violated its agreement with us” after the two sides had reached the deal in Geneva in May.
Under the terms of the deal, the two sides agreed to pause tariffs between the countries for 90 days as China reduced tariffs on American goods from 125% to 10% while the United States cut tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clarified Trump’s comments on CBS News “Face the Nation” Sunday, stating that China was “withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement,” and then confirmed those products to be rare earths.