(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump said in a late-night social media post that Chinese leader Xi Jinping was very tough to make a deal with, raising questions about whether a fragile economic truce between the world’s two largest economies will hold.
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China and the US are at odds on a number of issues, and have yet to confirm plans for a leader-to-leader call the White House has said it expects will happen later this week.
“I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social at around 2:17 a.m. Washington time.
“China’s principle and position of developing China-US relations is consistent,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference on Wednesday when asked about Trump’s social media post about Xi.
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The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment placed in overnight hours after Trump’s post.
Tensions between the countries are ratcheting up again after a tariff truce in May. The Trump administration in recent weeks has barred the shipping of critical jet engine parts to China, throttled Beijing’s access to chip-design software and sought to slap fresh curbs on Huawei Technologies Co. chips.
US officials also announced last week a plan to start revoking visas for Chinese students.
Beyond strains in economic ties, geopolitical tensions are also growing. China’s Foreign Ministry over the weekend protested US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s assertion at a gathering of military chiefs that China poses an imminent threat to Taiwan, a self-ruled island claimed by Beijing.
Market reaction was muted following Trump’s post on Xi, given tensions between the US and China had increased in recent days. A gauge of Chinese stocks traded in Hong Kong pared gains to 0.5%, the Bloomberg Dollar Index slipped 0.1%, while US Treasuries were steady with the 10-year yield at 4.45%.
Trump expressed hope Friday he would soon speak with Xi, telling reporters in the Oval Office that China violated part of the agreement the two nations made in Geneva to cut tariff levels and reduce tensions, but that “I’m sure that I’ll speak to President Xi, and hopefully we’ll work that out.”
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