The joint statement issued on May 12 — announcing a provisional halt to the spiraling tariff war between Washington and Beijing — did more than mark a pause in hostilities. It quietly affirmed a deeper, more uncomfortable truth for Washington: Beijing, measured and unyielding, has once again managed to outmaneuver a Trump administration boxed in by its own belligerence.

Far from a victory lap, the agreement reads as a reluctant American retreat from a tariff crusade that threatened to destabilize not just bilateral trade, but global economic equilibrium. It underscored a reality that many in Washington are reluctant to admit: Beijing has outplayed a belligerent but ultimately cornered Trump administration.

That the deal took place at all is remarkable, considering the rhetorical bellows emanating from the White House just weeks ago. President Donald Trump, evidently emboldened by his own mythos of disruption, had ramped up tariffs to an astonishing 145 percent on a broad swath of Chinese imports. China responded in kind, implementing symmetrical retaliatory measures — tariffs soaring to 125 percent and rare earth export curbs that sent American manufacturers scrambling. The result was a near paralysis of $600 billion in two-way trade, stoking recessionary fears and dislocating supply chains around the globe.

The Geneva statement, then, represents not just a cooling-off period, but an implicit concession — if not an outright........

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