Ahead of the Xi-Trump meeting in Japan on Saturday, Chinese reiterated their hard-line stance. Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng warned that “China’s core concerns must be addressed properly” in trade negotiations. He added, “we hope the U.S. side could drop its wrong practices, and we can solve the problems through equal dialogue and cooperation.” Gao also urged US to ” cancel immediately sanctions on Chinese companies including Huawei to push for the healthy and stable development in Sino-U.S. ties”.
Separately, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said “the Chinese people are not afraid of pressure and never buy this kind of strategy,” referring to Trump’s tariff threats. And, he warned “starting a trade war and adding tariffs harms itself and others.”
On the other hand, WSJ reported that Xi will insist on lifting Huawei ban as part of a set of terms before China would come back to the table. Xi could also request US to lift all punitive tariffs and drop efforts to get China to buy even more US exports than Xi said it would back in December.
