Bessent and China's He Open All-Day Trade Talks in Manhattan Days Before Trump Hosts Xi

Since the November 2025 Busan truce capped US tariffs on Chinese goods near 20%, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng have met repeatedly in cities from London to Stockholm to lay groundwork for presidential-level deals. On Sunday, September 20, they did it again at JPMorgan Chase's Manhattan headquarters, with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in the room, four days before President Trump hosts Xi Jinping in Washington on September 24, according to Reuters reporting carried by CNBC and multiple outlets.

The session started around 10:30 a.m. ET and was expected to run all day, with a source telling Reuters it could stretch into Monday at a technical or "working" level. Bessent told reporters beforehand he wanted "focused, fulsome and constructive talks" to pave the way for the summit.

What's actually on the table

Three things dominate: the tariff truce that expires November 10, the flow of Chinese rare-earth magnets, and AI guardrails.

On rare earths, a senior U.S. official told reporters Friday that China's performance since Busan "has not been up to par," per Reuters. Beijing promised to restore critical mineral flows to U.S. and global buyers as part of that deal. It hasn't fully done so. That's a concrete, checkable failure to deliver on a prior commitment, not a new accusation.

On AI, Bessent said his talks with He would cover "both open- and closed-weight models," and that the U.S. is "open to discussions on avoiding shared risks and avoiding bifurcation of our two systems." He's also called for U.S.-China AI "guardrails" to keep powerful models out of the hands of bad non-state actors, according to Reuters.

Reuters reported this past week that a U.S. government website used an AI model built by Alibaba to let the public search proposed federal regulations. This occurred even though the FBI has accused Alibaba of "malicious" copying of Anthropic's technology. Washington is now sitting down to negotiate AI safety rules with the same country whose leading tech firm stands accused by its own FBI of ripping off American AI companies.

Bessent's answer isn't to slow down U.S. AI development. Asked about AI safety at a House Financial Services Committee hearing this past Tuesday, he said it's up to American firms whether to throttle their own progress, but argued they should be held liable for what their models build and generate, according to Reuters. That's a liability-based approach, not a government mandate, a distinction that matters for anyone worried about Washington overregulating a sector where the U.S. still leads.

Leftover business from May

Much of Sunday's agenda is unfinished homework from Trump and Xi's May meeting in Beijing: cutting tariffs on non-strategic goods, and Chinese pledges to buy $17 billion a year in U.S. agricultural products plus more than 200 Boeing aircraft. Those commitments are still just commitments. Four months later, they haven't been fully executed.

Meanwhile the tariff picture itself has gotten messier. The Supreme Court struck down the Trump tariffs that were imposed under a national-emergencies law, including the fentanyl-related duties, according to Reuters. The administration has been rebuilding tariff leverage under different legal authorities since, including restoring a 12.5% tariff tied to forced-labor allegations, and it's finalizing a separate probe into Chinese industrial overcapacity.

The realistic outcome

Anna Ashton, a longtime China trade analyst and founder of Ashton Intelligence, told Reuters she expects "some show of deliverables because of the fact that it's a presidential summit coming, but I don't feel like we're on the verge of some sort of breakthrough." Her read: "status quo is probably both sides' general best expectation."

That caution against overhyping is worth taking seriously given how many rounds of these prep talks have produced incremental steps rather than resolved fights.

Still, the stakes are real. If Beijing keeps rare-earth flows below Busan-promised levels and the November 10 truce deadline arrives without renewal, tariffs could escalate again on both sides. The open question heading into the Trump-Xi summit: does Sunday's session produce anything Trump and Xi can actually sign on September 24, or does it just buy both governments another few weeks of managed uncertainty.