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Laura Zhou

Robert Delaney

US-China trade talks in London next week would signal positive development in ties but the negotiations would not be easy, observers said.
Meanwhile, Chinese state media reaction to the expected talks was muted, with commentaries reminding the US to honour its pledges while asserting Beijing’s red lines.
On Friday, a day after his much-anticipated phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Donald Trump announced that a new round of high-level bilateral meetings were due to take place in the British capital.
Beijing’s foreign ministry confirmed the meeting late Saturday, announcing that Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng will be in London from June 8 to 13, and that “the first meeting of the China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism will be held with the US side” during his delegation’s trip.
“I am pleased to announce that Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, will be meeting in London on Monday, June 9, 2025, with Representatives of China, with reference to the Trade Deal,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
“The meeting should go very well. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
During their phone conversation on Thursday – the first since Trump returned to the White House in January – the two leaders agreed to advance talks aimed at resolving trade disputes between the world’s two largest economies.


The talks in London are expected to build on the temporary tariff cuts agreement reached in Geneva last month, where Bessent and Greer were part of the US delegation and Vice-Premier He Lifeng led the Chinese side.
Yun Sun, director of the China programme and co-director of the East Asia programme at the Stimson Centre in Washington, said Monday’s talks, if they did go ahead, would mark an important development.
“It is the first round of serious negotiations after Geneva to address the trade issues. And both sides carry the mandate from the top leaders.”
However, she said it remained to be seen whether the two sides could make quick and concrete progress on resolving key sticking points. These include China’s rare earth export controls and US curbs on advanced technologies, both of which are expected to be high on the agenda on Monday.
“[I’m] not sure they will reach a deal so soon, or anything reached will be permanent, but it is a positive development,” Sun said.
According to John Gong, a professor of economics at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, the Chinese negotiators may face a tough task with Lutnick now joining the US team. The commerce chief is an advocate for tariffs and his department oversees the US Bureau of Industry and Security – an agency responsible for export controls.
“Lutnick has been a supporter of using high tariffs to reduce the federal deficit, while Greer is expected to also be tough on tariff issues given his close ties with [Robert] Lighthizer,” Gong said.
Lighthizer, the US trade representative during Trump’s 2017-2021 first term, was a strong proponent of imposing high taxes on imported goods so as to protect US industries.
“I think the [Bessent, Greer, Lutnick] trio will be involved in future trade negotiations, and this is not good news for China,” Gong warned.
US-China tensions escalated dramatically in the days leading up to Thursday’s phone call, with both sides accusing each other of breaching the mid-May deal in Geneva, when they agreed to cut mutual tariffs by 115 per cent for 90 days.


Although Trump has maintained a conciliatory tone toward future talks with Beijing, Chinese state media have adopted a more cautious stance.
In a commentary on Saturday, state news agency Xinhua urged the US to honour its promises, particularly over the Geneva agreement and the Taiwan issue, but made no mention of Monday’s purported trade talks.
Thursday’s phone call had “created an important opportunity for relations to return to the right track”, but the “true test” lay in whether the US could “provide the certainty so urgently needed in bilateral relations”, it said.
It also warned against what it described as “any attempt to deliberately sever the relationship or pursue a zero-sum mindset” that would run “counter to the trend of the times”.
China would “never make the slightest compromise or concession” when it came to its national sovereignty and dignity, it added.

An article in Communist party mouthpiece People’s Daily, also on Saturday, reiterated Beijing’s position on the Taiwan issue as “the first red line” in bilateral ties.
While China had been “earnestly upholding, strictly implementing, and actively safeguarding” the consensus reached in Geneva, it was the US that had introduced “multiple discriminatory restrictive measures”, it said.
The page three article was published under the pseudonym Zhong Sheng, used by the paper for commentary on important international issues.
It also called for further communication in “various areas such as foreign policy, trade, military and law-enforcement, so as to enhance consensus, reduce misunderstanding and strengthen cooperation”.
Amid the US trade tensions, Beijing has stepped up trade talks with other major partners, including the European Union.
On Saturday, Beijing said that consultations with the EU about setting or agreeing on price commitments for Chinese electric vehicle exports had entered the final stage, but further efforts were needed from both sides.
The commerce ministry statement also said that China was willing to speed up the examination and approval of rare earth exports to European companies, and would release a verdict on its trade investigation on EU brandy imports by July 5.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Tariff-supporting commerce chief Howard Lutnick’s likely presence on US team in Britain on Monday ‘not good news for China’, observer warns

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