President Trump's announcement of potential 100% tariffs starting on China on Nov 1 will get all the attention, but export controls on "any and all critical software" could be extremely far-reaching, depending on how "critical software" is defined.
Broadly scoped, this could capture any U.S. software or product containing U.S. software - which would disrupt most tech flows to China. It also could be scoped to block Chinese access to U.S. cloud computing services, as well as U.S. AI models. That would be extremely painful for Beijing.
Narrowly scoped, this could just restrict U.S. chip-design software (which the U.S. controlled in May in response to the original Chinese rare earth controls, but subsequently issued licenses for). That would be far narrower than the scope of the controls that China announced.
Bottom-line: There is significant ambiguity regarding what exactly President Trump is threatening here. He deserves credit for moving swiftly to push back on China's actions. But precise and credible threats are necessary to deter China from implementing their controls - and for this threat to be effective, additional clarity is likely necessary.
Truth Details | Truth Social
It has just been learned that China has taken an extraordinarily aggressive position on Trade in sending an extremely hostile letter to the World, stating that they were going to, effective November 1st, 2025, impose large scale Export Controls on virtually every product they make, and some not even made by them. This affects ALL Countries, without exception, and was obviously a plan devised by them years ago. It is absolutely unheard of in International Trade, and a moral disgrace in dealing with other Nations.
Based on the fact that China has taken this unprecedented position, and speaking only for the U.S.A., and not other Nations who were similarly threatened, starting November 1st, 2025 (or sooner, depending on any further actions or changes taken by China), the United States of America will impose a Tariff of 100% on China, over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying. Also on November 1st, we will impose Export Controls on any and all critical software.
It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
DONALD J. TRUMP
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA