US-China trade truce sees a number of key China tech curbs being shelved – report
2026-02-12 11:22:00
The report says ahead of Trump’s visit to China in April, the US administration is putting on ice a number of key tech security measures that are targeted at Beijing. The sources say that Washington does not want to kick up a fuss, after having already seen a trade detente between Trump and Xi back in October last year.
The measures that are reportedly shelved include a ban on China Telecom’s operations in the US as well as restrictions on sales of Chinese tech equipment for US data centers. Besides that, a proposal to ban domestic sales of routers made by TP-Link and another measure that would bar sales of Chinese electric trucks and buses in the US have all been put on hold in the meantime.
Reuters notes that these are decisions that have not previously been reported.
As a reminder, the US administration had before this pushed forward with these key tech curbs against China on the pretext of “national security”. That as the US claims China has been exploiting sensitive US data for blackmail and intellectual property theft in the past.
While preserving positive relations ahead of Trump’s visit to China looks to be the main goal, two sources do note that the US administration focus in recent months have shifted to policing foreign tech threats related to Iran and Russia instead. That especially after the October trade truce with China was struck.
That’s not all too surprising to be honest. Trump has a knack for switching his attention to other countries/foreign matters when he feels he has accomplished something already. And in this instance, it is clear that he does not want to shake things up before he gets the chance to put on another show when he makes his way to Beijing in April.
If anything, this does at least tell us that there should not be any major bust ups between the US and China over the next two months.
That being said, China was cunning enough to engineer some leverage with rare earth minerals before the October meeting between Trump and Xi. You have to wonder if they will try and pocket another ace up their sleeve before the next one in April.
