China, in his words · Between terms · № 84
Demands reparations from China for COVID-19 and a 100% tariff on Chinese goods
“The time has come for America and the world to demand reparations and accountability from the Communist Party of China. We should all declare within one unified voice that China must pay. They must pay. The United States should immediately take steps to phase in a firm 100% tariff on all goods made in China.”
- Said
- , Speech at the North Carolina Republican Party convention, Greenville, North Carolina
- Subject
- COVID-19 reparations
- Threat
- Other
- Topic
- COVID-19
- Era
- Between terms
What the record showed
Later in the same speech he said all nations should present China "a bill for a minimum of $10 trillion" and cancel debts owed to China as a down payment. In his second term, U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods reached as high as 145% in 2025 and were then reduced in a series of truces that began with a joint statement in Geneva on May 12, 2025. The Geneva statement and the White House fact sheet on the deal reached after his Oct. 30, 2025 meeting with Xi Jinping set out terms on tariffs, fentanyl precursors, rare earths and soybean purchases; neither includes compensation for the pandemic. In late September 2026 the average U.S. tariff rate on Chinese goods was estimated at about 22%, the Associated Press reported.