China’s top diplomat on Friday said that the U.S. needed to “calm down” regarding the tentative limited trade deal that was reached between the two countries Thursday.
“We are willing to resolve the contradictions and differences with the U.S. through dialogue and discussions based on equality and mutual respect, but we will never accept unilateral sanctions or bullying,” Yi told reporters, according to The Washington Post.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also called the U.S. the “troublemaker of the world” in reference to Washington’s support of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
Wang’s critical comments come after the White House announced that President Trump had reached a limited trade deal with Beijing.
Under the reported deal, tariffs on $160 billion of Chinese goods scheduled to go into effect Sunday have been delayed and the existing tariffs on $360 billion of Chinese goods will be reduced.
In return, China will buy $50 billion of U.S. farm products, tighten domestic intellectual property laws and open its financial services markets, the Post reports.
A spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry deflected when asked about the supposed deal, saying “As soon as reports suggesting the phase one deal was reached emerged, the major stock markets in the U.S. and Europe jumped.”
“This illustrates that a deal through negotiation is beneficial to both nations and their peoples, and it is what the international community wants,” she added.