Scott Bessent and He Lifeng will meet in New York for U.S.-China talks ahead of the Trump-Xi summit later this week.
Published September 20, 2026
Top business leaders from China and the United States have begun talks in New York City ahead of a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week aimed at paving the way for a possible deal on trade, artificial intelligence and critical minerals.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng began talks at JPMorgan Chase’s Manhattan headquarters on Sunday morning, with U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Greer also in attendance.
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The meeting comes four days before Trump is scheduled to welcome Xi at the White House, with both sides seeking to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
“I look forward to an intensive, fruitful and constructive meeting today in preparation for the summit,” Bessent told reporters upon his arrival.
At the top of the agenda is the fragile US-China trade deal, which is set to expire on November 10th.
The deal, reached last November in Busan, South Korea, caps U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods at about 20%, after a tit-for-tat trade war briefly saw tariffs reach triple digits.
The U.S. government is also pressuring Beijing for supplies of rare earth magnets and other critical minerals essential to industries ranging from automobiles to advanced semiconductors.
China has promised to restore vital mineral flows under last year’s cease-fire agreement, but a senior US official said Friday that China’s performance has been “substandard.”
AI enters negotiations
Artificial intelligence (AI) is also expected to feature prominently, adding a relatively new issue to negotiations that have long been dominated by trade.
Bessent said countries could discuss AI “guardrails” aimed at addressing common risks, such as preventing powerful models from falling into the hands of malicious non-state actors.
The talks will feature both open-weight and closed-weight AI models. China’s open-weight model is increasingly of interest to U.S. companies, in part because it is cheaper than closed systems developed by U.S. companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
“The United States remains the leader in AI,” Bessent said. “And we are open to discussions about avoiding common risks and avoiding bifurcation of the two systems.”
Another potential point of friction is Iran. China remains one of Iran’s most important economic partners and buys much of its oil, making it a key target of Washington’s efforts to increase economic pressure on Iran as the United States and Israel’s war against Iran enters its seventh month.
Expectations remain low
Despite the packed agenda, analysts do not expect any fundamental progress.
“The fact that we have a presidential summit coming up will probably show some results, but I don’t think we’re on the brink of any sort of breakthrough,” Anna Ashton, a China trade analyst and founder of Ashton Intelligence, told Reuters.
“I think the status quo is probably the best hope for both sides in general.”
Former Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell similarly said the immediate goal may simply be to contain tensions.
“One of the only things we can hope for in the short term is a ceasefire, which will probably last the rest of this year,” Campbell said.
Sunday’s negotiations are part of a series of meetings between Mr. Bessent, Mr. He and Mr. Greer over the past 16 months aimed at hammering out areas of agreement before President Trump and President Xi meet face-to-face.
