China on Thursday voiced “serious concern” over recent US economic restrictions during a video call between Vice-Premier He Lifeng, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
The exchange took place as both sides sought to finalise economic deliverables ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s expected visit to the United States in September.
“The Chinese side expressed serious concern over the recent economic and trade restrictions imposed by the United States on China,” according to a readout by Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
The readout added that the two sides engaged in “candid, in-depth and constructive” exchanges, centred on implementing the “important consensus” reached at the Beijing meeting between US President Donald Trump and the Chinese leader.
Bessent said that he expected Beijing 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,” he wrote on social media.
As both sides continue engagements to secure outcomes ahead of the leaders’ summit, they have simultaneously taken escalatory economic measures, including US tariffs, export controls and tit-for-tat restrictions targeting each other’s companies.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced bans on imports of new Chinese robots and power inverters, citing threats to US national security and supply chain vulnerabilities.
Without mentioning China, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) added advanced robotic devices and connected power inverters to its Covered List, targeting two categories of foreign-made technology deemed a security risk.
The Chinese embassy in Washington urged the US to “abandon its hegemonic mindset” and “stop smearing Chinese companies and threatening them with sanctions”.
Last week, the Trump administration announced tariffs on China and 59 other economies under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act over forced labour allegations, hours before a temporary 10 per cent blanket levy was due to expire.
The measure included a 12.5 per cent tariff on Chinese imports.
A separate Section 301 investigation is also examining excess industrial capacity across 16 economies, including mainland China, Taiwan, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, the European Union and several Southeast Asian countries.
On rare earths, despite a temporary truce reached in Busan last year, China’s shipments of permanent magnets to the US continued to decline in the following months, falling 22.5 per cent year on year in January and February.
Last week, Greer told the Senate Finance Committee that Washington was still not receiving sufficient critical mineral exports from China
“We are getting a flow of critical minerals from China. It’s not as much as we would want. It’s not at the pace we would want, but we are getting them,” Greer said.
China maintains a near-monopoly on rare earth processing, especially for the heavy rare earth elements needed to produce high-performance magnets used in defence systems, robotics and electric vehicles.
People familiar with the matter, however, told the South China Morning Post that economic restrictions were unlikely to affect ongoing negotiations or jeopardise Xi’s expected visit.
The latest engagement follows last week’s 90-minute meeting between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers’ gathering in Manila.
After the talks, Rubio said the discussions covered the implementation of newly established trade and investment boards, with both sides working to operationalise them.
“I think that’s one of the potential concrete deliverables that we can have before September when that visit happens,” Rubio said.
The board of trade was one of the key outcomes of Trump’s May visit to China, with both sides agreeing to identify non-sensitive sectors and products eligible for a tariff-free trade mechanism capped at US$30 billion each.
In June, the USTR opened a public comment period to seek input on “specific types of non-sensitive products” that could be included in the board of trade. The process concluded on July 10.
Earlier this month, the Chinese embassy in Washington said agriculture and aviation were among the sectors selected for tariff-reduced trade, with both sides setting a “guiding objective” of expanding two-way agricultural trade and agreeing “in principle” to include farm products in a framework for so-called reciprocal tariff reductions.
Details about the board of investment, however, remain limited. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
