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September 15, 2025Cryptopolitan logoCryptopolitan

China accuses the U.S. of “unilateral bullying” over calls to impose tariffs on Russia

China came out swinging on Monday, accusing the United States of using “unilateral bullying” to force allies into slapping tariffs on Chinese goods over its oil dealings with ￰0￱ statement was made while Chinese and American officials were locked in trade negotiations in Madrid, trying for the fourth time in four months to cool off a worsening economic ￰1￱ to Reuters, China’s commerce ministry described Washington’s latest move as “a classic example of economic coercion,” urging the ￰2￱ drop the pressure and handle disputes through equal dialogue. Beijing’s anger was triggered by the ￰3￱ the G7 and NATO to back secondary tariffs on Chinese ￰4￱ White House claims China’s ongoing oil purchases from Russia are helping Moscow sidestep global ￰5￱ China has made it clear that it doesn’t intend to follow U.

S.-led sanctions, and it’s not going to stop buying Russian ￰6￱ back-and-forth came as ￰7￱ Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng began day two of closed-door meetings inside Spain’s Palacio de Santa ￰8￱ on TikTok ownership reach tentative deal While trade tensions exploded, another major issue, TikTok, saw ￰9￱ confirmed that ￰10￱ Chinese officials had agreed on a framework to transfer ownership of the app’s ￰11￱ to an American-controlled ￰12￱ confirmation is expected during a call between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping on ￰13￱ said the looming September 17 deadline forced negotiators to move quickly, but he also mentioned the timeline might be extended another 90 days to finalize ￰14￱ explained that both sides approached TikTok from completely different angles.

“They’re interested in Chinese characteristics of the app, which they think are soft power,” Bessent said. “We don’t care about Chinese ￰15￱ care about national security.” The earlier version of this deal, announced in March, didn’t go ￰16￱ time, both delegations seem more ￰17￱ ￰18￱ had already passed a law in 2024 demanding TikTok be sold or shut down entirely, citing surveillance risks and data exposure to Beijing. Trump, who credits TikTok for helping him win re-election, has 15 million followers on the app and doesn’t want it banned. “A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much wanted to ￰19￱ will be very happy!

I will be speaking to President Xi on ￰20￱ relationship remains a very strong one!!!” he wrote on Truth Social. Meanwhile, the White House recently launched its own official TikTok account to expand messaging on the ￰21￱ tensions flare as China targets Nvidia The same day trade talks continued, China’s market regulator launched an antitrust investigation into ￰22￱ Nvidia, saying early findings showed it violated anti-monopoly ￰23￱ called the timing “poor” but didn’t comment ￰24￱ decision is widely viewed as payback for Washington’s decision to restrict chip and semiconductor exports to China, part of the growing tech war between the two ￰25￱ Jingtao, an official with China’s cyberspace watchdog, confirmed that the proposed TikTok deal could include licensing agreements for intellectual property, including TikTok’s underlying algorithms.

However, it’s still unclear whether ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, will hand over control of the platform’s full tech ￰26￱ Chenggang, China’s chief trade negotiator, said ￰27￱ arguments were just more “unilateral bullying” and hinted that China would only move forward with TikTok divestment if Washington made concessions on tech and trade ￰28￱ confirmed that China had come to the table with “a very aggressive ask,” but stressed the U. S. wouldn’t compromise national security just to keep a social media app ￰29￱ from both countries have been meeting in European capitals since May, trying to stop the constant escalation of tariffs and halt the blockage of rare earth ￰30￱ Greer, the ￰31￱ Representative, said the TikTok agreement showed both countries were at least willing to engage seriously.

“It’s no secret that there are serious issues on trade, economics, and national security between the United States and ￰32￱ be able to come, sit down, quickly identify the issues, narrow them down to a very granular spot, and be able to come to a conclusion, subject to the leaders’ approval, I mean, that is remarkable,” Greer ￰33￱ of now, the Trump–Xi phone call scheduled for Friday is expected to lock in the TikTok ownership terms and possibly push forward other pending ￰34￱ wants tech restrictions rolled back, while the ￰35￱ to push allies to punish Beijing economically for its ties to ￰36￱ said the Russia issue was only “briefly discussed,” but made it clear the White House isn’t backing ￰37￱ smartest crypto minds already read our ￰38￱ in?

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