Donald Trump threatened China with a "massive increase" on tariffs and may cancel his upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping after China spent the past two days making "very hostile" trade moves—including aggressive rare-earths export restrictions and an attack on a key US semiconductor company.
In a Truth Social post, Trump accused China of trying to "clog" markets by restricting not just access to rare earths but also by placing export controls on "foreign companies that use Chinese rare earth equipment or material."
These rules are intended to take effect December 1, with many outlets reporting the rules will give China more leverage ahead of the Trump-Xi trade talks that are supposed to take place in South Korea in two weeks.
Trump confirmed that Xi did not reach out before the restrictions were imposed. He further claimed that other countries had contacted the US and agreed they, too, are "extremely angry at this great trade hostility, which came out of nowhere."
"Our relationship with China over the past six months has been a very good one, thereby making this move on trade an even more surprising one," Trump wrote, noting that "there seems to be no reason" to meet with Xi now.
Unsurprisingly, Trump's first move was to threaten tariffs on Chinese exports, but he claimed that "many other countermeasures" are under "serious consideration."
Accusing China of wielding its rare earths monopoly—with China controlling about 70 percent of the global rare earths supply—Trump threatened that "the US has monopoly positions also, much stronger and more far reaching than China’s."
"I have just not chosen to use them, there was never a reason for me to do so—UNTIL NOW!" Trump wrote.