According to the source, who declined to be identified as the plans have not been made public, China is reviewing its earlier plans to send a delegation, headed by vice-premier Liu He, to Washington next week.
China is likely to cancel its tentative plans to send Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser to Washington after Donald Trump announced new tariffs on US$200 billion worth of Chinese products, a government source in Beijing said on Tuesday.
One precondition for the talks was that the Americans would show sufficient goodwill but the US president’s decision on Monday to escalate the trade war by slapping 10 per cent tariffs on almost half of all Chinese exports may have scuppered the talks, the source added, although a final decision has yet to be made.
Trump hits China with new US$200 billion tariff attack
A US business representative in China said that Trump’s latest threat would be seen in China as “holding a gun to its head”.
Liu was set to convene a meeting in Beijing on Tuesday morning to discuss the government’s response to Trump’s decision, according to Bloomberg News, which cited an unidentified source.
“If the vice-premier does go to the US, we can reasonably suspect he has a reasonable offer, but at this point, I would think the likelihood is low,” the representative said.
