China urges US to ‘earnestly’ implement consensus reached by Xi, Trump

ISTANBUL

Beijing on Monday called on Washington to “earnestly” implement the consensus reached by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting last week in South Korea.

“The outcomes of the recent economic and trade consultations between Chinese and US teams in Kuala Lumpur fully demonstrate that dialogue and cooperation are the right ways to address issues, while threats and pressure will not help resolve them,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a news conference in Beijing.

She urged both sides to “earnestly implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state during their meeting in Busan, and to inject greater stability into China-US economic and trade cooperation as well as the world economy.”

Her remarks came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday the US may raise tariffs on China if Beijing continues blocking rare-earth exports.

"The Chinese have cornered the market (on rare earths), and unfortunately, at times they proved to be unreliable partners," Bessent told Fox News Sunday, expressing his hopes that the US “can depend on them to be more reliable partners."

If not, "we could threaten the tariffs again," Bessent said, stressing Washington has been prepared to use "maximum leverage."

Trump met with Xi in South Korea's port city of Busan on Thursday, where the two sides agreed to maintain stable trade ties and roll back some tariffs and export controls.

China moves to purchase wheat from US

Separately, a report by Bloomberg said on Monday that China has informed Washington about purchasing US wheat for the first time in a year following the Trump-Xi meeting.

The report said that the inquiries from China came after it resumed importing US soybeans last week, as China has not bought US wheat since early October last year.

A statement by Washington released over the weekend said that Beijing has agreed to “open China’s market to US soybeans and other agricultural exports,” noting that China will “suspend all of the retaliatory tariffs,” including on US wheat.

Beijing also said in a statement that it had reached “consensus” with the US on expanding agricultural trade, without providing details.