Former US envoy to China says both countries need ‘to give a little’ to secure a trade deal

Amb. Nicholas Burns: I think it’s very positive that President Trump and President Xi Jinping spoke because this tariff war had gotten out of hand and they’ve been unable to resolve it. And at a time like this, it sometimes takes the two leaders to get together to commit to further negotiations to instruct their ministers that there has to be progress. That appears to be what happened today. So, I think in the short term, it’s very positive. They’re not clearly at a deal yet. There has been a truce of sorts. And it’s a very complex set of issues that needs to be worked out.

Well, that’s what the Chinese said in their report. The Chinese always say that. In my entire experience over three years in China, they always said, “Well, the Americans requested this meeting or this phone call.” They want it to appear that we’re the ones asking for, or maybe blinking first. And that’s not always the case.

So, I think we have to know more about the White House. I’m just trying to defend the US a little bit here. But the important thing is, at 145% and 125% tariffs, you remember the last month, that stopped all trade between the countries. They had a good meeting following that in Geneva between our Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Chinese vice premier, but that agreement seems to have fallen apart.

So, this is not unusual. Trade issues are highly difficult and complex. They take a long time to work out. So, I would expect there to be meetings at the ministerial level quite soon. They have a 90-day deadline that expires at the very beginning of August. It’s hard to know whether they can meet that deadline. And it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they had to have an extension perhaps into autumn, because these are some of the most important issues between the US and China. And so, a lot is riding on this but I do think this is a step forward.

It’s unclear where it stands. President Trump, I saw, said that it was discussed. You know, this was something that the Chinese did. It was my understanding from the agreement that the two countries had last month, that China would resume the export of rare earth magnets and rare earth materials, themselves, but then didn’t do that and withheld them in order to put pressure on the United States.

I guess it’s not surprising the Chinese, this is part of their playbook, also blame the other side for all the problems and take no responsibility themselves. This has been my experience with them, but it’s unfair. It takes two to tango. Both sides have taken some very tough measures over the last month.

I should say that in the Biden administration, we took very tough measure against China because China has not been a fair trading partner for the US for several decades on intellectual property, on forced technology transfer (FTT). So, both sides are going to have to give a little in order to get a deal. That just makes sense in a complex diplomatic negotiation like this.

Obviously, we saw what the administration tried to do on Apr. 2, the so-called “Liberation Day.” I think the fundamental mistake that the Trump administration made was that when they put the very onerous tariffs on China, they also put high tariffs on our allies — Japan, South Korea, our partner India, the European Union, Canada, Mexico. All of those countries have the same trade problems with China that we do. It would have been far more effective had we focused on China, placed high tariffs on China — not 145% but high tariffs — and then asked the allies to join us in pressuring the Chinese to cease and desist with some of their more difficult trade measures. I found when I was ambassador that we were always more effective when we worked with our allies against the Chinese.

I certainly think it’s very important to keep human rights issues on the agenda. The People’s Republic of China is a massive violator of the rights of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang province, in Tibet, in Hong Kong. I saw firsthand the repression of Christianity and other religions in China itself. China is one of the worst offenders in the world. And so, I don’t think it is smart, I don’t think it’s right, if suddenly we’re going to take the position in the United States that we’re not going to talk to other countries about their human rights violations.

And when President Trump gave his speech in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a couple of weeks ago, that he would not talk about human rights to those countries or other countries and would not lecture countries, well, that’s a real deviation from where nearly all of our presidents — not all, but nearly all of our presidents — have been over the last half century, both Republican and Democrat.

And so, you know, you’ve got to work with China on a variety of issues. And I think today’s phone call was probably appropriately on the one issue of trade, but human rights should be on the agenda, the American agenda, as we talk to the Chinese.