The United States has accused China of betraying a fragile trade truce reached earlier this year, in a sharp escalation of rhetoric between the world’s two largest economies.
In a rare joint appearance in Washington, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent condemned Beijing’s decision to tighten export controls on rare earth materials, describing the move as an act of “economic coercion” and a “power grab” aimed at dominating global supply chains.
“If China wants to be an unreliable partner to the world, then the world will have to decouple,” Bessent said on Wednesday.
The unusually direct remarks underscore the mounting strain between Washington and Beijing ahead of an expected meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month.
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