On "Forbes Newsroom," author and U.S.-China relations expert Gordon Chang discussed President Trump's decision to loosen his administration's tariffs on China.
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00:00I think a lot of people were wondering who is going to blink first in this tit-for-tat tariff game.
00:06Is it going to be the United States or is it going to be China?
00:10And on Tuesday, Besson reportedly told investors that he expects a de-escalation with China very soon.
00:17And President Trump said that the tariff rate with China will come down substantially, but it won't be zero.
00:22In your opinion, it does look like President Trump's dialing it back, but why is he doing so?
00:28Well, I think he's doing so because he's seen the effect on not only the stock markets, but more importantly, the bond markets.
00:37And so I think that he wants to appease investors.
00:41You know, a lot of people who don't like President Trump has said that he folded first.
00:47I'm not so sure that's the case.
00:49This could very well be just a Jedi mind trick that we have seen the president use in other contexts.
00:54So this is I'm not sure that we are witnessing a putting the cards down on the table.
01:01But I do think, though, that President Trump wants to sort of buy some time in order to stitch together a trade deal with Beijing, which, of course, he wants.
01:11But I'm not so sure he's going to get in these circumstances, especially if the Chinese think that he blinked.
01:18So that's going to make them even more intransigent.