US Reportedly Pauses Salt-Typhoon Sanctions On China, Shelves New Export Controls To Protect Trade Truce

The United States has reportedly decided to suspend the imposition of sanctions on China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) to preserve the trade truce between the two nations.

Sanctions Halt As Rare Earths Weigh

The U.S. has paused its plans to impose sanctions linked to a significant cyberespionage campaign, known as Salt Typhoon, reported the Financial Times on Thursday.

The Trump administration also reportedly will not introduce major new export controls against China.

Sources told the publication that the Trump administration's China strategy has now shifted toward maintaining "stability" until the U.S. can reduce its reliance on China for rare earths, a dependency that has limited Washington's ability to take tougher measures. Trump is also reluctant to risk disrupting his planned visit to Beijing in April.

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China’s Major Cyber Attacks On The US

The decision to halt the sanctions comes after the U.S. Justice Department, in March, indicted 12 Chinese nationals for their alleged involvement in a global hacking campaign. The Justice Department suspected the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of State Security of employing hackers to acquire confidential information and track down critics worldwide.

Earlier, the Chinese hacker group, Salt Typhoon, was reported to have been exploiting vulnerabilities in routers of Cisco Network (NASDAQ:CSCO), a U.S. company. This cyberespionage campaign spent years infiltrating multiple U.S. and international telecom companies, as well as the network of a U.S. state’s Army National Guard.

The Trump administration’s reported decision also follows a framework agreement reached by the two leaders in South Korea in October, aiming to ease lingering trade tensions. China had also rolled back 24% additional tariffs on U.S. goods for a year, and Trump signed an executive order to formally cut a fentanyl-related tariff on imports from China to 10% from 20%, delivering on a key element of the trade deal struck with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.