Trump praises trade war truce, but China holds its tongue
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – As White House officials spoke about US President Donald Trump’s deal with China to hit pause in the trade war, Beijing has said little on a pact that cheered markets but left many questions unanswered.
China’s foreign ministry, the only government department that holds a daily briefing that foreign media can attend, has repeatedly referred questions on details to the commerce ministry, which has not commented yet.
The commerce ministry is due to hold its weekly news briefing on Thursday.
A lack of detail from the Chinese side has left investors and analysts wondering if Trump’s exuberance is warranted.
One Chinese official told Reuters that they were “waiting for the leaders to return” before publicizing details on the truce. President Xi Jinping and his most senior officials, including the commerce minister and the country’s two top diplomats, are in Portugal, and due back in China on Thursday.
The White House said China would agree to purchase a very substantial, amount of farm, energy, industrial, and other products from the US.
It also said China had agreed to start buying farm products from US farmers immediately.
China has made no direct mention of the specific goods it will buy. Washington has also said that China will cut import tariffs on American cars.
Beijing’s decision to keep things vague, for now, may reflect a desire to avoid being seen as having capitulated under pressure – the sides have 90 days to reach a deal, analysts said.
“Apparently, the Chinese government doesn’t want its people to consider the agreement as a failure for China,” said Fang Kecheng, a Chinese media researcher at the University of Pennsylvania.
“The 90-day limit sounds like an ultimatum given by the strong actor to the weak actor,” added Fang, a former journalist for the publication
Weekly.
The US embassy in Beijing posted a Chinese version of the White House’s readout of the meeting on the popular WeChat platform on social media, but reposting it was not possible.
Behind Beijing’s apparent caution may also fear that the truce might not last, said Andrew Gilholm, of the consultancy Control Risks. Southern
“They don’t want to look like they’ve gone across the Pacific offering concessions to placate Trump, and then a few weeks later escalation resumes,” he said.
To be sure, many tech-savvy Chinese were aware of the news, with some expressing unhappiness over a lack of details from state media.
However, a brokerage report speculated that a 3% jump in Chinese stocks on Monday was partly stoked by enthusiasm, which was based on optimistic but vague reporting in Chinese newspapers.
China’s reticence contrasted with the discussion of the deal by US officials, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow.
That may reflect differences in political culture more than anything, said Luwei Rose Luqiu, a journalism professor at Hong Kong Baptist University.
For meetings such as the Trump-Xi dinner, the initial official news report is typically drafted by the foreign ministry and approved by the General Office of the ruling Communist Party’s Central Committee, she said.
More often than not, such statements are short on details, said Luqiu, who covered meetings between Chinese and foreign leaders during 20 years as a reporter with Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV.
“Every time we covered this kind of bilateral meeting we had no detailed information from the Chinese side,” she said, adding that Chinese media were only allowed to publish the reports of state news agency Xinhua. “This is China’s political culture,” she added.