Good evening. I'm John Yang. The developing trade war between the United States and China keeps

ratcheting up. There are reports tonight. China has suspended exports of rare earth minerals

critical to automakers, semiconductor companies, and military contractors. And Commerce Secretary

Howard Lutnik said today that the electronics, the administration,

exempted from reciprocal tariffs on Friday, could be subject to different levies in the future.

Earlier I spoke with Katrina Northrop, China correspondent for the Washington Post.

I asked her about the Chinese reaction to the initial exemption of those electronics.

They said that it was a good step.

They're still criticizing the tariffs, but it does show a window of opportunity,

potentially for the two sides to talk.

There's still a lot of problems and a lot of kind of barriers to get them together.

But that exemption, I think, is going to be seen positively in Beijing.

What do the economists and analysts say about the effect on the Chinese economy of a trade war?

It's huge.

The Chinese economy is not doing well.

It's struggled to rebound from the pandemic.

They've had a property sector crisis. They've had high youth unemployment.

So they started at a bad baseline and exports have been a really bright spot in the otherwise sluggish economy.

Katrina, you're in Taipei like like most Western journalists, because of the restrictions

that Beijing has put on Western journalists.

Is it possible to tell, though, how this is affecting or the reaction of the Chinese people

to this?

...