Scott Bessent To Meet Chinese Vice Premier Lifeng In Madrid: From Trade To Tiktok - What's On The Agenda?

(MENAFN- Live Mint) (Bloomberg) -- US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will meet with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Madrid to discuss trade, economic and national security issues in another sign that talks between the two sides are heating up.

The discussions next week will also cover TikTok's status and efforts to combat money laundering, according to a schedule released by the Treasury Department on Thursday.

The economic talks come as Washington and Beijing have engaged in a flurry of diplomatic outreach this week, smoothing the path for a potential meeting between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump .

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Top defense and foreign policy officials from both sides held what the US characterized as“candid and constructive” conversations. With Xi and Trump expected to attend a summit in South Korea next month, the exchanges may smooth the path to their first face-to-face encounter since Trump returned to office.

“It appears that the groundwork is being laid in earnest for a Trump-Xi summit, likely to take place in China in late October,” said Jeremy Chan, a senior analyst on the China and Northeast Asia team at Eurasia Group.

“The main task will be making progress toward a 'deal' that would include Chinese purchase commitments in return for lower US tariffs - either reciprocal or fentanyl related,” he said. While no major breakthroughs may immediately result, the Madrid meeting could offer signs of progress toward a deal that would be announced at a leaders' summit, he said.

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The Chinese Foreign Ministry didn't respond immediately to a request for comment sent Friday morning.

The planned dialogue between Bessent and He is part of a Sept. 12-18 trip that the US official is making to Spain and Britain, where he's scheduled to meet his counterparts. Bessent's plan was earlier reported by Reuters.

A January deadline for ByteDance to find a local buyer was pushed back three times by Trump, the latest being a 90-day extension from June 19. With that deadline coming up on Sept. 17, TikTok's fate is still up in the air with no clear sign of a deal being struck.

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The timing is also particularly delicate for the world's two largest economies, as a 90-day tariff truce between the nations is set to expire in early November. The temporary agreement has prevented levies from escalating to sky-high levels, but its expiration looms as a potential flashpoint for renewed economic warfare.

Trump has maintained his tough stance on trade, telling European officials this week he's willing to impose sweeping new tariffs on China over its support for Russia. Such moves could derail the diplomatic progress and complicate efforts to reach any broader trade agreement.

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