BEIJING: China’s top trade official told his counterparts from the United States on Thursday (Jul 30) that Beijing had “serious concern” over Washington’s latest trade restrictions, according to state media.
China and the United States spent much of last year embroiled in an escalating trade war but reached a truce when US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met last October.
Tensions have risen again, however, over fresh US tariffs imposed on a majority of its trading partners last week.
Beijing condemned the duties imposed on China and 59 other countries over alleged forced labour concerns, and warned Washington against waging a trade war.
China accused the United States on Wednesday of seeking to “suppress” Chinese companies, after Washington banned imports of humanoid and quadruped robots manufactured abroad in a move separate from the new tariffs.
In the video call between Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent along with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Thursday, “the Chinese side expressed serious concern over recent US economic and trade restrictions against China”, state news agency Xinhua reported.
The call was “candid, in-depth and constructive”, according to Xinhua, as negotiators discussed “maintaining stable economic and trade ties … and properly addressing mutual concerns in the next phase”.
In a statement on social media, Bessent confirmed the call and said Washington stressed that it expected China “to fully meet its commitments on rare earths and US agricultural products”.
“We also discussed implementation of the Trade and Investment Boards as a mechanism to secure concrete progress toward a more balanced, fair, and constructive US-China economic relationship,” Bessent said.
The talks mark the first direct discussions between He, Bessent and Greer since Trump’s Beijing summit with Xi in May that emphasised strategic stability between the two economic superpowers and launched new bilateral trade and investment forums.
Trump administration officials touted China’s pledge to order 200 Boeing aircraft and purchase an additional US$17 billion worth of US non-soybean agricultural products as wins from that meeting.
They also have said that China was only partly meeting its obligations to deliver rare earth minerals under a November 2025 trade truce.
During his trip to Beijing in May, Trump invited Xi to visit the United States in September, but that visit is yet to be confirmed.
Bessent said the conversation with He was part of the preparation for the expected September meeting.
