Trump claims meeting with China after Beijing denies any trade negotiations

The United States and China are not engaged in consultations or talks on the tariff issue,

Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for the ministry, said at a press briefing

Donald Trump-president

Boeing should default China for not taking the beautifully finished planes that China committed to purchase. This is just a small example of what China has done to the USA, for years...” ... Fentanyl continues to pour into our Country from China, through Mexico and Canada, killing hundreds of thousands of our people, and it better stop, NOW!”

Later on Thursday, Trump posted on Truth Social ... He also wrote

It doesn’t matter who ‘they’ is. We may reveal it later, but they had meetings this morning, and we’ve been meeting with China.”

However, he declined to identify the Chinese representative involved, adding

China has taken note of some recent reports in foreign media,

He said during a press conference

We’ve been meeting with China.”

But hours later, asked about the state of negotiations with Beijing, Trump maintained

I would like to emphasize that there are currently no economic and trade negotiations between China and the United States."

Yet, hours earlier, Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong told reporters

Rick Watersformer senior State Department official

The U.S. and China are in a state of economic decoupling and there do not seem to be any guardrails to prevent escalations in trade tensions from spreading to other areas,

Rick Waters, a former senior U.S. diplomat at the Carnegie Endowment for Global Peace, told the Wall Street Journal

If anything, the United States — particularly in the era of President Donald Trump — risks overestimating unilateral power and underestimating China’s ability to counter it,

they wrote

The whole agenda is Make America Great Again, and yet, paradoxically, he underestimates American power,

he said

Ursula von der Leyeneuropean Commission President

Countries are lining up to work with us,

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has told POLITICO

China will continue to pursue high-standard opening-up, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of foreign companies and take more proactive measures to support them in overcoming operational difficulties,

he added

For example, the synergy between technological advancement and market expansion has rapidly elevated new energy vehicles into a standout sector in global manufacturing, propelling the fast-track commercialization of related products and services such as autonomous driving, advanced batteries and vehicle connectivity systems,

he added

We're optimistic that it will work, the sooner, the better,

he said

We're not going to hide the fact that we're still a long way from an agreement,

said French economy minister Eric Lombard in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank's spring meetings in Washington

We want tariffs to return to previous levels, and even lower if possible,

he said

We will be talking technical terms as early as next week,

he said

We've got a process in place,

Bessent said on April 17.

Any claims about the progress of China-U.S. trade negotiations are groundless as trying to catch the wind and have no factual basis,

the spokesman said

I want to say that I actually agree with the secretary on one thing. It’s a very complicated world, a world of massive challenges of all kinds.” ... Yes, we have to focus.”

But she replied ... Stressing that the Fund was a “very fiscally disciplined institution”, she added

Kristalina GeorgievaiMF Managing Director

Simply put, the world economy is facing a new and major test,

said Georgieva