The Trump administration has quietly suspended a slate of technology and infrastructure restrictions targeting China ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned visit to Beijing in April, easing trade tensions even as former officials warn of mounting national security risks.
According to multiple sources cited by Reuters, the measures put on hold include a ban on China Telecom’s operations in the United States and planned restrictions on the sale of Chinese-made equipment to American data centers. Also paused are a proposed ban on TP-Link routers in the U.S. market, curbs on the American internet businesses of China Unicom and China Mobile, and a ban on the sale of Chinese-made electric trucks and buses in the United States.
The decisions extend the “trade truce” that Mr. Trump and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, agreed to in Busan, South Korea, in October, where both sides pledged to dial down a confrontation that had been driven by years of tariff battles and escalating technology controls. As part of that understanding, Beijing reportedly agreed to postpone export controls on rare earth minerals, critical inputs for a wide range of advanced technologies from smartphones to missile systems.
The U.S. Commerce Department, asked about the suspended measures, offered only a broad statement, saying it was “actively using our authority to address national security risks arising from foreign technology and will continue to do so,” but declined to explain why the specific actions against Chinese firms had been shelved.
Inside Washington, some see the pause as an attempt to create a more favorable atmosphere before the Beijing summit and to stabilize a relationship that has whipsawed global supply chains and markets. Others argue the move undercuts years of bipartisan efforts to insulate core U.S. infrastructure from Chinese influence at a moment when artificial intelligence and cloud computing are driving a rapid buildout of data centers.
The concerns are particularly acute in sectors where Chinese hardware and software can serve as a gateway to sensitive information. The now-suspended measures were originally crafted to prevent Beijing from siphoning off American data or disrupting critical infrastructure, U.S. officials have said.
Matthew Pottinger, who served as deputy national security adviser in Mr. Trump’s first term and has been a leading advocate of a tougher China policy, underscored what he called the strategic contradiction in the administration’s latest turn. He pointed to “the irony of allowing China to exert new influence on the U.S. economy in the fields of telecommunications infrastructure, data centers, AI, and electric vehicles, at a time when we are trying to reduce China’s influence in the rare earth supply chain.”
David Feith, another veteran of both the first and second Trump administrations, warned that the United States could be trading short-term diplomatic calm for long-term vulnerability. “U.S. data centers could become islands remotely controlled by China’s ‘digital sovereignty’,” he said, invoking Beijing’s doctrine that states should wield tight control over digital networks and data within their reach.
Beijing, for its part, has sought to frame the U.S. shift as a welcome departure from what it calls the “politicization” of trade and technology. The Chinese Embassy in Washington said it opposed turning commercial and tech issues into political weapons and expressed hope that this year could mark “a year of mutual respect and cooperation” between the two countries.
Companies caught in the crosshairs of the now-frozen restrictions have moved quickly to distance themselves from Beijing’s security apparatus. TP-Link, a major supplier of networking equipment that had been targeted for a U.S. sales ban, said it had become “an independent U.S. company that was spun off from its Chinese headquarters in 2024” and insisted it “adheres to U.S.-managed software and security standards, so claims of security risks are completely false.”
Behind the scenes, the policy shift appears to reflect a broader reordering of U.S. security priorities. After the Busan “trade truce,” agencies responsible for monitoring overseas technology threats were instructed to “focus on Iran and Russia,” according to people familiar with the guidance, effectively lowering the temperature on China at least in the near term.
Yet the reprieve may prove temporary. Reuters reported that the United States could move swiftly to reinstate the suspended sanctions if relations with Beijing deteriorate after Mr. Trump’s April visit. That conditional approach underscores the fragile nature of the current calm: the same tools now mothballed could be redeployed as leverage should talks falter or new flash points emerge, whether over Taiwan, cyber intrusions or military maneuvers in the South China Sea.
For now, the administration is attempting a delicate balancing act — signaling openness to economic accommodation with China while reserving the right to snap back a tougher regime of controls. The outcome of Mr. Trump’s Beijing trip may determine whether the United States continues to walk that line, or reverts to a more confrontational posture that once again places technology at the center of the world’s most consequential rivalry.
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