US ‘undermined’ tariff truce, China hits back

China on Monday hit back at the US, accusing it of “seriously violating” their recent Geneva trade truce by introducing multiple restrictive measures like AI chip export control guidelines, stopping the sale of chip design software to China and revoking visas for Chinese students.

The US has undermined the consensus reached during the China-US economic and trade talks in Geneva by successively introducing multiple discriminatory restrictive measures against China, a spokesperson for the Commerce Ministry said in a statement, refuting President Donald Trump’s allegation that China had “totally violated agreement with us”.

The US measures included issuing guidance on AI chip export controls, halting sales of chip design software to China, and announcing the revocation of visas for Chinese students, the spokesperson said.

It is significant that China has clubbed the student visas with trade and tariff-related issues. About 2.7 lakh Chinese students studying in the US scrambled to work out their plans after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that America would begin revoking the visas of some Chinese students.

Both the US and China agreed to lower tit-for-tat tariffs after talks last month in Geneva.