U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng are set to meet Sunday at JPMorgan Chase's Manhattan headquarters to prepare potential agreements on AI, tariffs, and critical minerals ahead of a Trump-Xi summit.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng are scheduled to meet Sunday to lay groundwork for potential agreements on artificial intelligence, tariffs, and critical minerals before a high-stakes Washington summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week.
The discussions, which will also include U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, are set to begin at approximately 10:30 a.m. Eastern at JPMorgan Chase's headquarters in Manhattan and are expected to run through the day.
The meeting comes as a U.S.-China trade truce — reached in Busan, South Korea in November 2025, which capped U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods at roughly 20% — is set to expire on November 10. That truce followed a period of tit-for-tat escalation that had pushed tariffs to triple-digit levels on both sides.
The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently struck down the Trump tariffs that were invoked under a national emergencies law, including duties tied to fentanyl trafficking. The administration has since been rebuilding those duties under new authorities, including a restored 12.5% tariff on Chinese goods over forced labor allegations, and is finalizing a separate tariff investigation targeting what officials describe as excess industrial capacity in China.
A senior U.S. official told reporters Friday that China's performance on restoring critical mineral flows — promised under the November truce — "has not been up to par" and will be a central topic ahead of the summit. Rare-earth magnets and other critical materials are key inputs for advanced semiconductor manufacturing that underpins AI development.
The AI dimension of Sunday's talks represents a notable expansion of the bilateral agenda. Bessent said Friday he expects discussions to cover "both open- and closed-weight models." Open-weight AI systems, whose core components are publicly accessible and can be downloaded and fine-tuned by users, have gained traction with U.S. companies partly because of their lower cost compared to closed-weight systems developed by firms such as Anthropic and OpenAI.
"The United States remains the leader in AI. And we are open to discussions on avoiding shared risks and avoiding bifurcation of our two systems," Bessent said in a statement ahead of the talks.
Bessent has previously called for the two countries to agree on AI "guard rails" aimed at preventing powerful models from reaching malign non-state actors, a push that follows reports of security breaches involving AI models.
Analysts cautioned against expecting a decisive outcome. "I think there will be some show of deliverables because of the fact that it's a presidential summit coming, but I don't feel like we're on the verge of some sort of breakthrough," said Anna Ashton, a longtime China trade analyst and founder of Ashton Intelligence. "I think status quo is probably both sides' general best expectation."
Other holdover issues from Trump and Xi's May meeting in Beijing are also on the table, including Chinese pledges to increase purchases of U.S. agricultural goods by $17 billion a year and to buy more than 200 Boeing aircraft.
Trump's administration has tightened restrictions on U.S. investment in certain Chinese industries, but is working on rules that would likely permit U.S. pharmaceutical firms to invest in promising Chinese drugs and strike licensing deals, according to earlier reporting. China's Ministry of Commerce said Saturday that He will also lead a delegation of Chinese companies to the U.S. for separate economic and trade consultations ahead of the summit.
Sunday's meeting follows a pattern established over the past 16 months, in which Bessent, He, and Greer have convened in European and Asian cities to prepare the terrain for presidential-level engagement. Whether the Washington summit produces agreements on any of the three core agenda items — AI governance, tariff relief, or critical mineral supply — will test how much that preparatory work has actually narrowed the gap between the two sides.
TechEchelon Staff bylines are produced collectively by the newsroom for short, breaking, and wire-style coverage. Longer-form reporting is published under the responsible reporter's name.
More from the Staff →A federal judge in Los Angeles said Friday he was inclined to reject the portion of TikTok's $400 million Justice Department settlement that would terminate a 2019 FTC consent decree, casting doubt on whether the company will owe the full settlement amount.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger unveiled a "Data Center Accountability Framework" on Friday, proposing stricter rules on noise pollution, water use, and clean energy requirements for data center developments across the state.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Friday directing experts to recommend stronger AI safety laws within two months, including potential requirements for "kill switches" and independent safety audits of frontier AI companies.
Written for readers who already know the basics — markets, AI, and the policy decisions that shape both.