Top Trump officials are heading to Switzerland this weekend for the first face-to-face meeting with Chinese leaders since President Donald Trump unleashed a brutal new round of tariffs that have started to bite China’s economy.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will lead the American delegation in talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng. Experts note that Trump’s tariffs have sparked major economic problems for China domestically, but each country stands to benefit from successful talks.
“The United States and China both have something to gain from these talks,” Kenneth Rapoza, an analyst at the Coalition for a Prosperous America, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Everyone is looking for a resolution.”
While both China and the U.S. appear interested in resolving the standoff, their bargaining power differs. China’s key leverage lies in its vast domestic market, which remains largely closed to American companies — something Beijing knows many U.S. businesses are eager to access, Rapoza told the DCNF.
“Opening up China’s economy is something a lot of American businesses would like because they have been completely shut out,” Rapoza said. “China has huge profit potential for American companies.”
However, Rapoza said that China’s economy has been heavily damaged by tariffs. The Chinese government’s main objective is keeping people employed, something that has become almost impossible as factories have closed. The true impact of the tariffs on China’s workforce is too large to fully appreciate, and China is becoming increasingly anxious about the economic problems at home, Rapoza said.
“China has one goal: keep unemployment low,” Rapoza added. “With an economy so heavily dependent on exports to the U.S., they face massive — probably unknowable — economic headwinds. What we do know is that as unemployment keeps growing, China will do anything to stop the bloodletting.”
Trump posted on Truth Social Friday that an 80% tariff on China “seems right,” suggesting a possible shift away from the 145% tariff currently in place and toward de-escalation in the trade dispute.
After Trump hit China with a 145% tariff, the East Asian nation’s economy began to slow down. China’s export industry — employing 16 million people — saw new orders drop to the lowest level since 2022. Cargo shipments to the U.S. collapsed by 60%, the services sector hit a seven-month low, and China’s six largest banks reported profits in the first quarter of 2025 were down almost $2 billion from the same time last year. In total, sales to the United States account for about 3% of China’s GDP and more than 1/5 of their total exports.
The economic fallout has begun to hit workers. Across the country, thousands of unpaid workers have walked off the job and taken to the streets demanding back pay, according to Radio Free Asia, which is funded by the U.S. government. Some have even threatened suicide.
“This will be about de-escalation, not the big trade deal,” Bessent told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Tuesday. “We’ve got to de-escalate before we can move forward.”
The economic crises at home puts China in a weak position, Gordon G. Chang, the author of “Plan Red: China’s Project To Destroy America,” told the DCNF.
“President Trump holds all the high cards in the trade talks. The only thing [Chinese President] Xi Jinping can do is convince the American president, who knows he has the winning hand, to fold,” Chang said.
“China’s economy is contracting, and workers are taking to the streets. The Chinese people don’t want to ‘eat bitterness’ — endure adversity — anymore, but in their system they have little say in the matter.”
With the crisis escalating, China’s central bank scrambled to pump up economy just days before the talks. On Wednesday, it slashed interest rates, cut reserve requirements, and made mortgages cheaper in a bid to prop up a crumbling housing market and keep exporters above water.
Xi Jinping has been globe-trotting for months, frantically courting leaders in Russia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia to drum up support against Trump’s tariffs, according to the Financial Times.
Even though China’s economy has slowed down, the nationalist rhetoric coming from the Chinese Communist Party has not.
A spokesperson for the Chinese government said the country does not plan to “sacrifice its principles or international fairness and justice” in seeking any agreement.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington and China’s Ministry of Commerce said they agreed to the negotiations, in part, to help out American businesses. `
“Based on full consideration of global expectations, China’s interests, and the appeals of the U.S. business community and consumers, China has decided to agree to engage with the US side,” the Chinese Embassy in Washington posted on X.
Now, after months of escalations and threats of an all-out trade war, Beijing has quietly started backing down. The Chinese officials who once vowed to “fight to the end” are agreeing to talks without concessions from Washington.
As China tries to stem the bleeding, Chang said that Trump should continue to apply the pressure.
“He believes in tariffs and understands the future of everything depends on America winning. Things are really bad in China now, and Xi is giving us a critical reason to make them even worse,” he told the DCNF.
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