China hits back after US Prez claims it is ‘violating’ tariff truce

Washington:  US President Donald Trump on Friday accused China of violating a two-week-old truce on tariffs, a claim China has responded to with its own accusations of US wrongdoing, media reports said, reports Dynamite News correspondent.

Washington and Beijing agreed to temporarily lower tit-for-tat tariffs after talks in Geneva earlier this month.

But Trump said that China had "totally violated its agreement with us". He did not give details but US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer later said China had not been removing non-tariff barriers as agreed under the deal, BBC reported.

Beijing's response did not address the US claims directly but urged the US to "cease discriminatory restrictions against China". The strong statements from both sides have raised concerns that trade tensions could again escalate between the world's two largest economies despite recent negotiations.

Trump said in a Truth Social post that the tariffs his administration had imposed had been "devastating" for China and so he had "made a FAST DEAL" to save them from "what I thought was going to be a very bad situation".

"Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!"

"The United States did exactly what it was supposed to do and the Chinese are slow-rolling their compliance which is completely unacceptable and has to be addressed," Greer said. China responded urging the US to "immediately correct its erroneous actions, cease discriminatory restrictions against China and jointly uphold the consensus reached at the high-level talks in Geneva".

A spokesman from its Washington embassy said China had recently "repeatedly raised concerns" with the US over its "abuse of export control measures in the semiconductor sector".

The US already has restrictions in place on technology exports to China, and on Wednesday paused more sales to China of chip technologies - crucial to semiconductors - and also paused exports of chemicals and machinery.

Pengyu Liu said both sides had maintained communication since the talks in Geneva on 11 May, which had ended on a positive note. However on Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had said trade talks with China had become "a bit stalled".

Trump's global tariff regime was dealt a blow on Wednesday following a ruling that he had exceeded his authority. His plans have been temporarily reinstated after the White House appealed the decision.

His administration this week also moved to "aggressively" revoke the visas of Chinese students studying in the US, of which there are an estimated 280,000. (With inputs from agencies)