Bessent meets China's Vice Premier He ahead of Trump-Xi summit
The meeting comes a day before Trump is due to host Xi in Washington to discuss trade, rare earths and artificial intelligence.
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Washington on Wednesday. The talks come a day before Trump is set to host Xi in the capital on September 24 for discussions covering trade, rare earths and artificial intelligence.
Xi is unlikely to bring a business delegation to that meeting. China's commerce minister has separately warned the European Union against protectionism as the Washington summit nears. Beijing is also investigating DeepSeek and Moonshot over alleged data leaks to Anthropic, days before a summit that is expected to touch on AI policy.
On the US side, Senate Democrats including Chris Coons, Patty Murray, Jack Reed and Jeanne Shaheen say China is exploiting gaps in existing chip export controls. Bessent himself is named as the frontrunner for Trump's planned AI czar post, a role that remains undefined, according to Semafor. The 2-year Treasury yield touched its highest level of the year, 4.79%, on Wednesday.
The Bessent-He meeting fits inside trade negotiations where both sides are testing possible truces on tariffs, rare earths and AI, while tension over chip controls and technology access continues underneath. A bilateral Treasury meeting shows the two sides are still talking, but the backdrop of chip restrictions, AI controls and the absence of a Chinese business delegation points to talks that stay narrow and transactional rather than any broader thaw. On its own, the meeting is neither a breakthrough nor a breakdown.