China has signalled for more than 15 years that it was looking to weaponise areas of the global supply chain, a strategy modelled on longstanding American export controls Beijing views as aimed at stalling its rise.

The way the Chinese work is that if our president talks to Xi Jinping, they will agree to general principles. Such as “Let’s try to resolve the tariff war. And let’s get Vice Premier He Lifeng to sit down again with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.”

President Trump spoke by phone to China’s Xi Jinping in a bid to ease the trade war he started by slapping massive tariffs on products imported from the world’s biggest manufacturing