He wants to show China can withstand the economic pain, according to experts.
abcnews.go.com
Beijing believes Trump has already blinked by pausing the reciprocal tariffs for 90 days.
"I think the Chinese will read this as weakness from President Trump and they will wait," he said.
这个文章说习为了这个等很久了,根本不会眨眼,就等着这机会跟美国脱钩
Trump's trade war also feeds into the strategy that Xi has been working on for years: become less reliant on the United States.
This breakdown in trade is "exactly what Beijing has been preparing for," said Jude Blanchette, director of the RAND China Research Center. "Beijing is not looking for negotiation."
“At the moment, Xi seems to be calculating that China can withstand the damage and that ultimately it's the United States who will blink first," said Neil Thomas, a fellow for Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis
Xi's view is that countries will want to do business less with the U.S. because of the uncertainty created by tariffs, which will drive them toward China, said Thomas, who added that China has been preparing for this possibility for years by growing trade relations with the rest of the world
"For Xi, there's a huge amount of risk of looking weak in his dealings with the U.S. He risks being humiliated or not having anything to show for his engagement with Trump," Thomas said. "The tariffs will be economically painful, but Xi also sees this as an opportunity to get China into a healthier situation by reducing reliance on the U.S."