China Says Will 'Fight to the End' in US Trade War

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - In a defiant public declaration, China on Tuesday stated it was ready to "fight to the end" in its escalating trade war with the United States, a forceful response to a dramatic threat from U.S. President Donald Trump to slap additional 100 percent tariffs on Chinese goods. However, behind this fiery rhetoric, a frantic and complex diplomatic dance is underway, with both Beijing and Washington privately expressing a desire to de-escalate the latest flare-up in a conflict that has rattled global markets and threatened to derail a crucial upcoming summit between the two nations' leaders.

This delicate balancing act, with President Trump publicly seeking to soothe markets while privately maintaining pressure, and Beijing issuing harsh warnings while simultaneously sending conciliatory signals, has become the defining feature of a high-stakes economic battle that is now rippling across the entire global economy.

The latest and most intense round of this long-running trade dispute was ignited last week when Beijing announced sweeping new export controls on the strategic and highly sensitive sector of rare earth minerals, a field in which China currently enjoys a near-monopolistic dominance. President Trump's response, delivered in a Friday social media post, was swift and massive.

As reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP), he announced that he would impose additional 100 percent tariffs on goods from China and that Washington would also impose its own export controls "on any and all critical software" beginning on November 1.

This renewed conflict immediately sparked a large U.S. market selloff and prompted the president to suggest that he might cancel a planned and highly anticipated meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month.

The official response from Beijing on Tuesday was one of unwavering resolve. "On the matter of tariff wars and trade wars, China's position remains consistent," an unnamed spokesperson for the commerce ministry said in a statement reported by AFP. "If you wish to fight, we shall fight to the end; if you wish to negotiate, our door remains open."

The statement also contained a sharp rebuke of Washington's negotiating tactics. "The United States cannot simultaneously seek dialogue while threatening to impose new restrictive measures. This is not the proper way to engage with China."

However, beneath this public display of defiance, a more nuanced and de-escalatory strategy appears to be at play.

As detailed in a comprehensive report by The Wall Street Journal, both nations have been privately expressing a desire to quell the tensions, at least for the time being. According to the Journal, the Chinese are eager to save the Trump-Xi summit, while the Trump administration is keen to stem the losses in the stock market and to prevent the trade flare-up from overshadowing the president's recent diplomatic victory in brokering the Gaza peace deal.

President Trump himself has been walking a fine line. According to people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, after his 100 percent tariff threat, the president spoke with senior officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, about sending a clear message to the world that the U.S. is open to de-escalating the tensions.

This was reflected in a more positive tone in his social media posts over the weekend. "Don’t worry about China! It will all be fine,” he wrote in one post, adding that his administration wants to "help" China.

This more conciliatory public posture, however, does not mean the U.S. is backing down.

According to The Wall Street Journal, in his own recent engagement with Chinese officials, Treasury Secretary Bessent made it clear that while President Trump is open to de-escalatory talks, he is also not ruling out the use of further countermeasures if China does not back down from its rare earth export controls.

Beijing, for its part, has also been sending its own subtle but significant de-escalatory signals. In a response on Sunday, China's Ministry of Commerce notably refrained from making any specific threats of retaliation against the new U.S. tariff threat.

Instead, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, the ministry promised to implement its new export controls in a "prudential and moderate manner," a statement that has been widely interpreted as a tacit admission that Beijing may have overplayed its hand.

"China’s export controls are not export bans," the ministry said, adding that the new rule was intended to target military end-uses, not the broader civilian applications that have so rattled global markets. "All applications for compliant export for civil use can get approval, so that relevant businesses have no need to worry," the statement read.

Further evidence of Beijing's desire to lower the temperature can be seen in its domestic state-controlled media, where President Trump's threat of 100 percent tariffs has received minimal coverage. By avoiding inflammatory rhetoric, China appears to be building itself an "off-ramp" to walk back its more aggressive stance without losing face.

Despite these conciliatory signals, the core of the dispute remains unresolved. People close to the Trump administration have told The Wall Street Journal that the U.S. is likely to demand that China completely rescind, not merely water down, its rare earth export rule, leaving the door open for a new cycle of retaliation if a deal cannot be reached.

This high-stakes trade war is not being fought in a vacuum. It is part of a broader and intensifying geopolitical competition between the United States and China, where economic instruments like tariffs, export controls, and sanctions are increasingly being used as levers of strategic influence.

This was vividly illustrated this week in a separate but related dispute in the global shipping industry. As reported by Kurdistan24, China on Tuesday imposed sanctions on five American subsidiaries of the South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean, accusing them of assisting a U.S. government investigation into China's dominance of the global shipping sector.

This move coincided with both nations imposing reciprocal "special port fees" on each other's vessels.

This tit-for-tat escalation in the shipping sector, which followed a U.S. "Section 301" investigation that found China's market dominance to be "unreasonable" and damaging to U.S. interests, demonstrates the willingness of both sides to target key sectors of the global economy and to ensnare third-party companies in their dispute.

The sanctions against Hanwha's U.S. subsidiaries illustrate the growing risks for multinational corporations as they navigate the treacherous waters of the U.S.-China rivalry.

As the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank hold their semi-annual gathering in Washington this week, the global impact of this escalating trade war is in the spotlight. The White House continues to insist that the long-term effect of its tariff policies will be positive for the United States, pointing to what it describes as a relatively muted economic impact so far.

However, for U.S. firms that do business in China, the uncertainty is a major concern. "The U.S. and China can choose to spur another cycle of action and retaliation, or they can choose a path that leads to de-escalation and negotiation,” Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, told The Wall Street Journal. “For the good of the economy, U.S. companies are hoping for the latter.”

Despite the recent public softening of rhetoric from both sides, the fundamental disagreements remain. The path to the potential Trump-Xi summit is still fraught with peril, and a lasting resolution to the trade war appears as distant as ever. The world is now watching to see if the private desire for de-escalation can overcome the public posturing of a fight "to the end."