China Draws a Line: Cooperate or Confrontation Will Cost Everyone
BEIJING — China’s leadership on September 19 delivered one of its clearest warnings yet to Washington: cooperate on equal terms, or brace for a rupture that will hurt not only the world’s two largest economies but the global system they anchor. In remarks and statements that departed from the usual layers of diplomatic restraint, Beijing made plain it has grown weary of the escalating cycle of pressure and retaliation unleashed under former President Donald J. Trump’s trade war.
“Cooperate, respect us, and we can stabilise the relationship and benefit the world,” President Xi Jinping said in a message to the National Committee on US–China Relations. “If you choose confrontation, everyone pays the price.” The phrasing, uncharacteristically stark for the Chinese leader, underscored a view that the tariffs imposed by Mr. Trump — often introduced without detailed justification or apparent strategic coherence — have become a corrosive fixture in the relationship, testing Beijing’s patience and narrowing its room to manoeuvre.p
The irritation is now visible at multiple levels of the Chinese state. Premier Li Qiang, meeting with American business leaders in Beijing, pledged that China would remain open to foreign investment but demanded reciprocity: a “fair, just and nondiscriminatory environment” for Chinese firms abroad. Chinese analysts and state commentators, in a sharper register than in years past, openly questioned Washington’s credibility, saying that repeated assurances that the United States does not seek “decoupling” have been belied by the blunt-force use of tariffs, export bans and investment restrictions.
The backdrop to this language is telling. Xi’s message was delivered in writing, timed to coincide with formal dialogues and telephone contacts, but its public tone was aimed squarely at Washington and its economic managers. Beijing’s insistence that cooperation, not confrontation, has always been the engine of bilateral progress was paired with an unmistakable irritation: the sense that trade measures imposed under Trump — and sustained by his successors — were crafted as political instruments rather than economic policy.
“Mutual benefit and win-win results,” Xi said, were the historical glue that had held relations together despite “twists and turns.” But Chinese officials now describe the continuation of punitive tariffs as irrational and corrosive, making it difficult for them to convince domestic audiences that Washington is acting in good faith.
For Washington, the sharper tone presents both an opportunity and a test. Business leaders will seize on Beijing’s appeal as evidence that China still values economic partnership, and that the door remains open to stabilising trade ties. But political hardliners will interpret the irritation as weakness, arguing that tariffs and export controls are applying real pressure and that Beijing’s calls for “reciprocity” mask a desire to escape accountability on issues ranging from subsidies to technology transfer.
For now, China is balancing reassurance with warning. The leadership is telling foreign investors that access will remain, while simultaneously making clear that tariffs and discriminatory restrictions are eroding Beijing’s willingness to absorb further blows in silence. The risk is that both sides continue to treat the other’s firmness as proof of intransigence — Washington seeing leverage, Beijing seeing disrespect.
The underlying message is unmistakable: China has reached its limit. The era of quiet endurance is over. If Washington continues to wield tariffs and sanctions as blunt weapons, Beijing will no longer cushion the impact. The confrontation Trump began without rationale may be the one that defines the decade — and this time, China is signalling it will not simply absorb the cost, but ensure that everyone shares it.
