Trump, Vance open door to China deal as trade spat drags on

Josh Wingrove and María Paula Mijares Torres, Bloomberg News on Oct 12, 2025

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President Donald Trump’s administration signaled openness Sunday to a deal with China to quell fresh trade tensions while also warning that recent export controls announced by Beijing were a major barrier to talks.

Vice President JD Vance called on Beijing to “choose the path of reason” in the latest spiraling trade fight between the world’s two leading economies, claiming that Trump has more leverage if the fight drags on.

Trump later posted a statement that hinted at a possible off-ramp for Chinese President Xi Jinping while issuing a veiled threat that a full trade war would wound China.

“Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine! Highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment. He doesn’t want Depression for his country, and neither do I. The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!!” he wrote on Truth Social.

The remarks from Trump and Vance suggest that the U.S. wants to keep up the pressure on China to reverse its most recent trade moves, while trying to reassure spooked markets that a tit-for-tat escalation isn’t inevitable.

Stocks, oil and crypto were hammered Friday by the flare-up, which was stoked by a social media post from Trump threatening the U.S. would respond to China’s imposition of export curbs on rare earths and other trade measures. Vance cast it as an ongoing negotiation.

“It’s going to be a delicate dance, and a lot of it is going to depend on how the Chinese respond,” Vance said on Fox News’s "Sunday Morning Futures." “If they respond in a highly aggressive manner, I guarantee you, the president of the United States has far more cards than the People’s Republic of China. If, however, they’re willing to be reasonable,” he said, then the U.S. would, too.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said earlier Sunday the U.S. should stop threatening it with higher tariffs and urged further negotiations to resolve outstanding trade issues.

Tensions flared over the past week when China announced new export controls and other measures — though some don’t take effect until November, or may not be widely enforced.

“I think it’s become very clear to everybody that this power grab by the Chinese won’t be tolerated,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Fox News’s "The Sunday Briefing."

An apparently furious Trump announced Friday that he would add tariffs of 100% on Chinese goods and restrict certain US software exports, beginning Nov. 1, while also signaling he might halt shipments of aircraft parts. But Trump also said he picked a November date for negotiations.

“We’re gonna have to see what happens. That’s why I made it November 1. We’ll see what happens,” Trump said Friday.

Greer pointed to that deadline as a reason for hope that the market turmoil will settle this week.

“I think that is normal reaction for the markets to have some concern,” Greer said. “That being said, these measures aren’t in place yet. It’s scheduled for Nov. 1. So I think we’ll see the markets calm this coming week, as they see things settle out, hopefully.”

Vance, who said he had spoken with Trump Saturday and Sunday, said the president “appreciates the friendship that he’s developed with Xi,” but added, “We have a lot of leverage. And my hope, and I know the president’s hope, is that we don’t have to use that leverage.”

He added that the good relationship is threatened “if the Chinese go down this pathway of cutting off the entire world from access to some of the goods that they produce.”

Greer on Sunday cited wording in the Chinese Commerce Ministry statement that said export controls aren’t the same as a ban on exports.

“Clearly, the Chinese have realized that they have wildly overstepped the bounds of what’s acceptable,” he said.

The two superpowers engaged in a spiraling trade fight this spring, ratcheting up tariffs to at least 125% on each side, before striking a deal to retreat to current levels — Chinese levies of 10% on US goods, and a combined US levy of 30% on imports from China, on top of preexisting tariffs.

“We’re going to find out a lot in the weeks to come about whether China wants to start a trade war with us, or whether they actually want to be reasonable. I hope they choose the path of reason,” Vance said.

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