China’s Vice-Premier He, US Treasury’s Bessent spar over tariffs, ‘economic imbalances’

Name: China’s envoy criticises US tariff, Panama Canal and AI policies of Donald Trump
Uploaded: 2025-02-21T14:35:15.000Z
Duration: 6 min 3 s
Description: China’s envoy criticises US tariff, Panama Canal and AI policies of Donald Trump

Both sides express ‘serious concerns’ over each other’s policies in their first call since US President Donald Trump took office

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Scott Bessent testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on his nomination to be Secretary of the Treasury, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Photo: AFP

Khushboo Razdanin Washington

Published: 10:35pm, 21 Feb 2025Updated: 12:31am, 22 Feb 2025

China’s Vice-Premier He Lifeng held a video call with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday, expressing “serious concerns” regarding the recent imposition of tariffs and other restrictive measures on Chinese goods by US President Donald Trump.

Citing Beijing’s economic policies and efforts to control the flow of narcotics, Bessent used similar language to characterise the discussion, in the second call between Beijing and high-level officials in Trump’s second presidential administration. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a phone call with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi last month.

“Both sides recognised the importance of China-US economic and trade relations and agreed to continue to maintain communication on issues of mutual concern,” a read-out from the Chinese government’s State Council said.

It added that He voiced “serious concerns about the recent restrictive measures such as the imposition of tariffs by the United States on China”.

He is a leading official overseeing economic and financial policy and also serves as Beijing’s lead person for China-US economic and trade affairs.

06:03

China’s envoy criticises US tariff, Panama Canal and AI policies of Donald Trump

Earlier this month, Trump imposed additional 10 per cent tariffs on all Chinese imports, citing the “extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl” and Beijing’s failure in “stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country”.