Plans for United States President Donald Trump to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea in late October remain intact, despite resurgent trade tensions between the two countries, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says.
Speaking to Fox Business Network on Monday, Bessent said the US and China had “substantially de-escalated” after a series of tit-for-tat trade moves that threatened to strain relations and trigger a new trade war between Washington and Beijing.
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The comments came after Trump, angered by China’s October 9 decision to expand export controls on key rare earth minerals, announced an additional 100 percent tariff on Chinese goods set to take effect on November 1.
But there have since been “substantial communications” between the two sides, with additional staff-level meetings expected this week, said Bessent.
“The relationship, despite this announcement last week, is good. Lines of communication have reopened, so we’ll see where it goes,” said Bessent, adding that the “100 percent tariff does not have to happen” if the two sides work out their disagreements in negotiations.
He added that he expected a planned meeting between Trump and Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in South Korea in late October to go ahead. “He [Trump] will be meeting with [Communist] Party Chair Xi in Korea,” said Bessent. “I believe that meeting will still be on.”
Bessent stressed that Trump and Xi have “a very good relationship” and suggested that Beijing’s latest policy on rare earth elements could have originated from a lower-level official rather than Xi himself.
The comments echo Trump’s seemingly conciliatory message the day before, in which he assured “all will be fine” with US-China relations.
“Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment. He doesn’t want Depression for his country, and neither do I. The USA wants to help China, not hurt it!!!”
The softer tone soothed a jittery Wall Street and sparked a strong rebound in US stocks at the start of trading in New York on Monday, after Trump’s tariff announcement on Friday sparked a big sell-off.
‘Pointed a bazooka’
Despite the apparent rapprochement, Bessent slammed China’s new export controls as provocative and said the US pushed back aggressively.
“They have pointed a bazooka at the supply chains and the industrial base of the entire free world,” said Bessent. “And, you know, we’re not going to have it. China is a command and control economy. They are neither going to command [nor] control us.”
He added that the US has been in touch with allies and expects support from the Europeans, India and allies in Asia.
China has defended its new export curbs, which require foreign companies to get Beijing’s approval to export products containing Chinese rare earth elements, and to disclose their intended use.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said the heightened restrictions were introduced in response to a series of US measures since the two countries’ trade talks held in Madrid, Spain last month, including Washington’s decision to blacklist Chinese firms and impose port fees on China-linked ships.
Beijing accused Washington of “provocative and damaging” actions and called Trump’s tariff threat a “typical example of double standards”.
China has a near monopoly over rare earth minerals, critical for the manufacture of technology such as electric cars, smartphones, semiconductors and weapons.
