Eunice Yoon, CNBC Business News, joins  'Fast Money' to talk the sentiment in China over U.S. tariffs.

Beijing

Donald Trump has signed an order to impose tariffs imports into the U.S. from countries including China, Mexico and Canada.

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The trade truce between China and the United States is under strain as both countries have taken steps that complicate ongoing negotiations. The U.S. has moved to restrict chip design software sales to China, paused exports for Chinese planemaker Comac, and announced plans to revoke visas for Chinese students, prompting strong reactions from China. Meanwhile, China has not lifted export controls on rare earths as agreed and has threatened legal action against enforcement of U.S. chip restrictions, describing them as bullying.

Public sentiment in China reflects concern over the economic impact of these tensions, with social media discussions and government narratives emphasizing national resilience. The Chinese economy faces challenges including a weak job market and financial issues, heightening worries about the effects of tariffs. While China has so far responded with measured diplomatic actions, there is potential for more direct retaliatory measures against U.S. companies, such as inspections or targeting individual firms, although broader tariff retaliation may be limited due to economic considerations.

China-U.S. trade truce in trouble

Well, for more on the mood in China surrounding tariffs and trade, let's turn to CNBC senior correspondent Eunice Yun, who is in Beijing. Eunice, great to have you with us at this early hour in Beijing time. What is the mood there? Because it does seem to be a lot of highs and lows when it comes to the relationship between President Trump and President Xi. Yeah, I think that there's a lot of concern here that the trade truce might not hold because each side has been taking steps that really seem to be threatening the possibility of having a greater trade negotiation and for these issues to be resolved. For example, on the U.S. side, the Trump administration, at least there are several reports now, is moving on restricting chip design software sales to China and pausing exports for Chinese planemaker Comac. And then, on top of that, it announced plans to what they described as aggressively revoking visas for Chinese students. And that move prompted a very angry response here, as you can imagine, by the Chinese. On the Chinese side, though, they aren't cooperating either. They have yet to remove the export controls for rare earths, which was something that was dictated in the Geneva statement. Today, they called them international common practice. They are also threatening legal action against those who enforce the U.S.'s new chip curbs. They called those bullying. And then, also, they lodged a protest about the U.S.'s plans to pull student visas. That was seen as a step that is right in the negotiating playbook of Beijing to kind of throw in a lot of different unrelated issues to the matter at hand, so, in this case, trade, in order to gain leverage themselves in those larger negotiations. And then, on top of that, of course, is something that you guys were talking about, and that is the U.S. court rulings. And what that means for President Trump's authority to be able to have that leverage of the tariffs. So, all points to a whole lot more uncertainty. Guys? AMNA NAWAZ. Eunice, a few weeks back, I believe, you were talking about the reaction of social media, the Chinese people, to President Trump in the United States. And I'm wondering if that is as strong as ever, and if Chinese consumers are themselves deciding not to patronize U.S. brands. There is some of that. And definitely on social media, you do see the Beijing narrative. Of course, this is a censored media environment, so you do see this Beijing narrative that China has to stand up, really playing with the public. There have been several nicknames of President Trump, as Comrade Nation Builder, of course, the nation being China. There have also been several memes online of Americans kind of hunching over iPhone assembly lines. So, there's a lot of that discussion going on. But I think that, at the end of the day, one of the big problems is that the economy is quite weak. People are worried about these trade issues and the tariffs. They're concerned generally because they see the property here, the financial issues that people are having, the bad job market. All of that is something that's kind of playing into the sentiment here and the concerns about what all of this means for the economy. Does that make you think the government, they're more willing to take extreme action in terms of retaliation against U.S. companies? I mean, so far, the responses that you outlined are very polite responses that are acceptable sort of in the realms of just normal diplomacy. But there are ways, you know, they can detain executives, they can inspect factories at will, they can shut down factories for inspections, all sorts of these softer ways that they can sort of exert their influence and control. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we've already seen some of that, at least on a minor level, where they were going after individual companies. It hasn't happened yet in a broader sense, but it's something that's there. And I think that, you know, there's also been a lot of discussion here as to whether or not the Chinese would take the first step and maybe retaliate with other tariffs. But actually, that's not as harmful, even though it is harmful to the economy. It's not really as harmful, like more broadly. So you could see that the Chinese, if they were to choose to retaliate, would do something that would be less harmful for their economy. And that could include going after individual companies, American companies in a bigger way.

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