US President Donald Trump made a fresh round of explosive statements on China this week threatening everything from imposing 200% tariffs on the country to suggesting he might head to Beijing for a visit at some point in the future.
“They have to give us [rare earth] magnets, if they don’t give us magnets, then we have to charge them 200% tariffs or something,” Trump told reporters after he met with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung at the White House on Monday.
“But we’re not going to have a problem I don’t think,” he added, before saying China had “intelligently” built a monopoly on tariffs. “Nobody needed magnets until they convinced everybody 20 years ago let’s all do magnets,” he said.
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China mines more than 70% of the world’s rare earths and makes 90% of the rare earth magnets that are necessary to produce electric vehicles, military equipment, appliances and consumer electronics. Magnets are also an essential component in assembly lines for all vehicles.
Until early June, China had completely halted all rare earth and magnet exports to the US in retaliation to Trump’s then triple digit tariffs and chip export restrictions against the country. But their exports to the US jumped 660% after China eased its restrictions.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, the US President also suggested that Washington had greater leverage on China because of American supplies of airplane parts to its key economic rival. “200 of their planes were unable to fly because we were not giving them Boeing parts purposely because they weren’t giving us magnets,” he added.
“But we have a much more powerful thing that’s tariffs… If we, if we want to put 100%, 200% tariffs on, we wouldn’t do any business with China,” he added.
“We’re going to have a lot of magnets in a pretty short period of time. In fact, we’ll have so many we won’t know what to do with them,” he went on to say.
Trump then said that the US had a great relationship with China and that “President Xi would like me to come to China.”
“I spoke to your presidency fairly recently, and at some point, probably during this year or shortly thereafter, we’ll go to China,” he said.
“We’re going to have a great relationship with China. It’s happening. You see it. It’s happening,” he said.
In the same vein, however, he said he had “cards” that could potentially “destroy China”.
“They have some cards. We have incredible cards, but I don’t want to play those cards… If I played those cards that would destroy China. I’m not going to play those cards,” he said.
#WATCH | Washington DC | “We are going to have a great relationship with China…They have some cards. We have incredible cards, but I don’t want to play those cards. If I play those cards, that would destroy China. I am not going to play those cards” says US President Donald… pic.twitter.com/PDlNPkkmm2
— ANI (@ANI) August 25, 2025
Muted Chinese reaction
When asked by foreign reporters for a comment on Trump’s vow of 200% tariffs in the absence of magnet exports, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a regular press briefing on Tuesday that China “has made clear” its “position on the tariff issue many times.”
China has previously said that “there are no winners in trade wars” and vowed to protect its interests when necessary. Chinese President Xi Jinping has also termed Trump’s tariffs as a tactic for “bullying”.
At Tuesday’s press conference, when asked about Trump’s statements that the US had a stronger leverage on China, Guo said that Beijing “has always handled and promoted China-US relations in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful co-existence and win-win cooperation, while firmly safeguarding its own sovereignty, security and development interests.”
“We hope that the US side will meet us halfway and jointly promote the stable, healthy and sustainable development of China-US relations,” he said.
Guo also did not give a direct answer when asked about a potential Trump visit to China at Xi’s behest.
“The head-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable strategic guiding role in China-US relations. The heads of state of China and the US maintain close exchanges and communication,” he said.
Top China negotiator heading to US
Trump’s latest statements come on the heels of senior Chinese trade negotiator Li Chenggang planned visit to Washington this week.
Li, China’s international trade representative and a key negotiator alongside economy tsar He Lifeng, may meet deputy-level US government officials, a United States government spokesperson said on Monday.
The visit was not part of a formal negotiating session for ongoing trade talks between the two countries, with both agreeing this month to extend a trade truce until November. The current levies stand at 30% on Chinese imports to the US and 10% Chinese duties on US goods.
A source familiar with the negotiations said there was no meeting planned between Li and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and he was not coming at the request of the US side.
Traders on both sides of the Pacific are watching to see whether this month’s tariff extension will become permanent or if Trump will once again upend global supply chains with a fresh wave of prohibitively high duties on Chinese imports.
US retailers are stocking up ahead of the critical end-of-year holiday season, while Chinese producers – locked out of the world’s top consumer economy – say they are in “survival mode”, scrambling to secure market share elsewhere to stay afloat.
Once Trump’s tariffs top 35%, they become prohibitively high for Chinese exporters, economists warn.
Li’s trip to Washington would follow three previous rounds of trade negotiations between the two nations since May – in Geneva, London and, earlier this month, in Stockholm.
The last time a senior Chinese trade negotiator visited the US was in November 2023, when He Lifeng met then-US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in San Francisco, ahead of the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit in the city.
But the timing of the visit is particularly awkward given the recent highly critical comments by the Chinese ambassador to the United States regarding Trump’s trade policy, the source said.
“(US) protectionism is rampant, casting a shadow over China-U.S. agricultural cooperation,” Ambassador Xie Feng said in a speech to a soybean industry event in Washington on Friday, calling the Trump administration’s plans to curb farmland purchases by “foreign adversaries”, including China, “political manipulation.”
- Vishakha Saxena, with Reuters
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