https://archive.is/FKuhi (reuters)
https://archive.is/MIdNc (afp)
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met for about eight hours with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Geneva in their first face-to-face meeting since the world’s two largest economies heaped tariffs well above 100% on each other’s goods.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that an 80% tariff on Chinese goods “seems right”, suggesting for the first time a specific alternative to the 145% levies he has imposed on Chinese imports.
Neither side made any statements about the substance of the discussions nor signaled any progress towards reducing crushing tariffs as meetings at the residence of Switzerland’s ambassador to the U.N. concluded at about 8 p.m. local time. (1800 GMT)
The discussions are expected to restart on Sunday in the Swiss city, according to an individual familiar with the talks, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
The 80% number is just something that Trump posted on his social media early on Friday morning, before any meeting ever happened.
UPDATE Trump posted on truthsocial, 1 hour ago. He describes the meeting with the phrases “total reset” and “great progress”. I won’t believe this until I hear the perspective from China’s government.
Sorry, but you are making big claims here. Justin Lin Yifu is an economist with degrees in both Chinese and American universities. However, Justin Lin Yifu is far from being the only economic advisor of China. You are making big arguments about the whole Chinese economic system being neoliberal and you just cite one person.
Simply because by selling its bonds will make the Chinese currency devaluate, making their exports more expensive and thus driving other countries to move their industry outside of China, a movement that has already started happening.
Also, paying off the countries’ debt won’t make the debt go away. Chinese funding the countries’ infrastructure will.
Not to mention that holding many US bonds make China have some leverage over the US economy. They have means to hurt the US if needed. Even Japan, which owns a lot of US bonds threatened to sell them off.