US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed plans to speak with Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng on Friday in a further sign of easing tensions ahead of a potential meeting between the two countries’ leaders.
“The vice-premier, who is my counterpart, and I will be speaking this evening at around 8.30, 9 o’clock,” Bessent said at the White House on Friday.
The Treasury secretary added that He will also join him and a delegation in Malaysia “probably a week from tomorrow” to prepare for a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Bessent’s comments come just days after tensions in the US-China trade war escalated, when Beijing announced on October 9 that it would roll out further export restrictions for rare earth elements, key raw materials used in hi-tech manufacturing, in what many saw as a response to the expansion of a US trade blacklist.
Trump responded to Beijing’s announcement by threatening to impose an additional 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods – which he later conceded was “not sustainable” – and introduce export controls on all “critical software” from the start of next month.
More complications arose on Tuesday, when China and the United States began implementing new port fee structures on each other’s ships and Trump warned he was considering a halt to imports of Chinese cooking oil.
