Trump Threatens ‘Massive’ China Tariffs, Calls Off Meeting with Xi Over Export Controls

President Donald Trump has suspended plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping after Beijing imposed tighter export controls on rare earth minerals this week.

“Some very strange things are happening in China!” Trump wrote in a Friday post to Truth Social. “They are becoming very hostile, and sending letters to Countries throughout the World, that they want to impose Export Controls on each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it’s not manufactured in China. We’ve never seen anything like this.”

Trump described his relationship with China over the past six months as “very good” but called the new restrictions on exports “surprising.” He added, “I have always felt that they’ve been lying in wait, and now, as usual, I have been proven right!”

The administration had suggested Trump might meet Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit later this month in South Korea. However, the president said, “now there seems to be no reason to do so.”

China has held a dominant position in the global rare earth minerals and magnets market for decades, using its supply—which is critical for electronics worldwide—as leverage in political and economic disputes.

“There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the World ‘captive,’ but that seems to have been their plan for quite some time, starting with the ‘Magnets’ and, other Elements that they have quietly amassed into somewhat of a Monopoly position, a rather sinister and hostile move, to say the least,” Trump added.