Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping emphasized multilateralism and open trade in a phone call with UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Sept. 8. Meanwhile, insiders within the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) system told The Epoch Times that Xi is attempting to use economic globalization to counter the United States’ decoupling policy.
In this first publicly known conversation between the two leaders since Burnham took office in July, Xi said that as major global economies, “China and Britain both support multilateralism and open trade” and should step up coordination through multilateral frameworks.
In the phone call, Xi also called on the two countries to work together to push for “inclusive economic globalization.”
Burnham’s office said the leaders discussed the “importance of pragmatic cooperation,” including on economic growth and raising living standards for people in both of their countries.
“The prime minister said that he would engage frankly and constructively on issues that matter for both countries, and raised domestic security, Russia’s war in Ukraine, Hong Kong, human rights, and consular cases of particular importance,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
Xi’s remarks followed Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s public criticism on tariff barriers and “decoupling and the severing of supply chains” in February.
Insiders within the CCP’s system indicated that Beijing has not abandoned the U.S. market, and through promoting globalized economy and open trade it has employed tactics such as transshipment via third countries, controlling rare earth supplies, and courting Europe—to make it difficult for the U.S. supply chain to decouple from China, thereby pressuring the Trump administration to adjust its policy toward China.
Pan, a source close to the decision-making circles of the Chinese regime’s Ministry of Commerce who gave only his surname out of fear of reprisal, told The Epoch Times that the turning point in Beijing’s strategy toward the United States emerged during the tariff standoff of the past year.
“The Chinese regime used to worry constantly about decoupling, but the leadership now believes that a genuine, hard decoupling is a statistical fallacy,” he said. “Over the past year, while U.S. records show a decline in direct imports from China, some Chinese goods have entered the U.S. market after being reassembled or processed in third countries like Mexico and Vietnam. Consequently, the ‘Chinese value’ embedded in these products has not significantly decreased. This is also a key reason why Vietnam’s trade surplus with the U.S. is approaching $200 billion.”
The United States has placed very high tariffs on a wide range of Chinese goods, and near-bans on some products, including cars. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Aug. 30 that G20 members should consider more trade barriers on China.
The Chinese regime’s measures targeting the United States include restricting the export of rare earths and critical minerals, and sanctioning U.S. defense companies, among others.
“The internal consensus within the CCP’s economic and trade apparatus is to adopt a cross-sector, coordinated approach toward the United States, utilizing policies with far-reaching impact to exert counter-leverage,” Pan said. “Top leadership believes China now possesses the capacity to raise the costs for the United States to drive the ‘de-Sinicization’ of supply chains, thereby compelling Trump to adjust his policy toward China.”
Containers at the port in Nanjing, in China's eastern Jiangsu Province, on Aug. 12, 2025. AFP via Getty Images
CCP’s Tactics
The CCP views rare earths as a strategic card in its contest with the United States, as U.S. industries—including defense, automotive, electronics, and new energy—rely on rare earth materials, according to Liu Yuan, a technical expert familiar with China’s rare earth industry who used a pseudonym out of fear of reprisal.
Liu told The Epoch Times that it would be difficult for the United States to completely break free from its dependence on Chinese supplies of rare earths and other critical minerals in the short term.
“There are many rare earth enterprises in Inner Mongolia. To my knowledge, the industry recently received a notice stating that rare earths are classified as vital national materials; export volumes require approval from the Ministry of Commerce, with restrictions primarily targeting exports to Western nations like the United States and Japan,” Liu said.
“The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries don’t need such large quantities of rare earths, but there are cases where parties purchase them from China and then resell them to the West. Chinese customs authorities monitor this closely, and export licenses are mandatory.”
Feng Run, who previously worked within the CCP’s system and is currently living in Europe, used a pseudonym out of fear of reprisal. He told The Epoch Times that Beijing is exploiting the vacuum left by U.S. withdrawals from international agreements and its trade protectionist policies to court Western nations, including the European Union.
He said that while the CCP ostensibly promotes the “de-Americanization” of foreign trade, it still seeks to maintain a stable strategic relationship with the United States.
Xi will meet with Trump during his scheduled U.S. visit on Sept. 24.
“Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States is actually to back down before the United States. However, the CCP will continue to expand exports to ASEAN, the Middle East, and other non-Western markets, subsequently routing these goods into the United States via third-party markets,” Feng said. “The key objective remains ensuring the U.S. market’s long-term reliance on Chinese goods while continuing to advance the CCP’s globalization policy.”
In recent years, Beijing has expanded its exports to and investments in ASEAN, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America to bypass western sanctions and tariffs, such as setting up factories in Mexico and Brazil.
Feng said that the China-U.S. relations have entered a new phase defined primarily by “struggle,” yet the ultimate goal of this struggle remains the identification of new boundaries for cooperation.
“Beijing is not currently seeking to supplant the United States’ position of global leadership; rather, it aims to create a situation that the United States would find difficult to sustain and that would drive a wedge between the United States and its allies,” he said. “The objective is to strategically compel the Trump administration to reverse the trend of de-globalization and return to a multipolar world.”
Xiao Bin contributed to this report.
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