Whether it is over TikTok, fentanyl or trade, Beijing might welcome a compromise to buy time to address its ailing economy and bolster its position globally.

China does not seek trade surpluses, a top official told the World Economic Forum Tuesday as the next round of U.S. tariffs looms.

Trade battles being threatened by President Trump would spike food prices, help China and risk key U.S. economic relationships, Mexico’s former trade chief said Monday “I say bring it on,” Kenneth Smith Ramos said in a thread on the social platform X in response to a clip of Trump discussing tariffs in the Oval Office.

That’s because President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that a new 10% across-the-board tariff on Chinese goods could be enacted as soon as February 1. Unlike Mexico and Canada, which largely avoid tariffs on exports to the United States because of the current USMCA trade agreement which Trump signed in his first term,