US, China Officials Kick Off Economic, Trade Talks in Madrid

US and China representatives have begun a new round of economic talks in Madrid as the diplomatic outreach between the two countries intensifies. 

The US delegation, helmed by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and the Chinese group, led by Vice Premier He Lifeng, arrived at the venue in Madrid Sunday afternoon. Talks began shortly after, according to a US government official. 

The discussions are set to encompass trade, economic and national security issues, as well as the status of ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok, which faces a deadline this week to reach a deal to ensure it continues operations in the US. Officials are also expected to lay the groundwork for a potential meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping as soon as next month, when the leaders are scheduled to attend a summit in South Korea.   

“With six weeks left remaining before a possible Trump-Xi meeting around the Korea APEC summit, the US and China must intensify their work if there are to be deliverables,” Wendy Cutler, a senior vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute and veteran US trade negotiator, said ahead of the Madrid talks. “Given the complexity of the matters facing the two governments to address, combined with a growing confidence by Xi that China holds the upper hand, agreeing on deliverables for a possible Trump-Xi summit will not be easy.”

China’s Ministry of Commerce has said that its delegation will be in Spain from Sept. 14-17. Bessent’s trip 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. Trump is set to visit the UK this week as well.

Ahead of the talks on Sunday, China launched two investigations targeting the US semiconductor industry, including an anti-dumping probe relating to certain American-made analog IC chips. The probes came shortly after the US added 23 more China-based companies to its entity list, which imposes restrictions on businesses deemed to be “acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the US.”