In Donald Trumps, the first quarter, American commercial negotiators met a familiar interlocutor in China: Liu He, an English advisor educated by Harvard of Xi Jinping who supported many of the same economic reforms that Washington had sought for years.
Now, while the United States and China are looking for a return path of a pure and simple trade war, the Beijing delegation will be led by Vice-President He Lifeng, an acolyte XI which should have a firm resistance line to Trumps Trade War.
Hell is probably a more difficult interlocutor for the Americans, said Andrew Gilholm, head of China's analysis at Consultancy Control Risks.
While Trump said on Thursday that China wanted to conclude an agreement, Gilholm added that Chinas was arranged and capable of taking political pain longer than the White House.
The Tsar du Trade Xis will meet the secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and the representative of the US trade Jamieson Greer in Geneva on Saturday during the first talks in front of high level, because it prevents the Dam of the Liberation Day Prices last month. Since then, the United States and China have reached samples, threatening an effective embargo between the two largest economies in the world.
He, 70, is part of a central group of party apparatus whose connection to XI dates back decades. He worked under XI in the province of Fujian and was raised to the vice-president in March 2023 when XI began his third unprecedented term of five years as president of Chinas.
Neil Thomas, an expert in the elite of Chinese policy to the reflection group on the Asia Society Policy Institute, said that this close association was positive for negotiations. It is important that he personally knows that these talks succeed and to represent the management credibly that Xi Jinping wants to take American-chinual relations, said Thomas.
In the past year, its concentration on foreign commitments has increased clearly, according to a Chinese political consultant who asked not to be appointed, while XI refocused the efforts of managers to resolve economic growth.
He has held dozens of meetings with foreign officials and business leaders in recent months, notably the president of Goldman Sachs, John Waldron, the president of Pfizer Albert Bourla, the boss of Apple Tim Cook and the founder of Nvidia Jensen Huang.
He was gradually published more comfortable in these situations, according to a person familiar with some of the meetings, and his messaging has become more friendly while Beijing urged American business leaders to influence the White House in the de -escalation of tensions.
During his meeting with Huang, the vice-president discussed his Hokkien family, a language spoken widely in the Fujian and Taiwan, including by the technological billionaire, said the person.
But others who met him said that unlike Liu, he seems to speak little English. While many Chinese officials often refuse to talk about foreign languages ​​during formal meetings, opting for an interpreter, many understand English.
He appears to be the Chinese archetypical, friendly, but confident of Chinese and somewhat distant technocrat, according to a person who met him.
He studied the economy and occupied management positions in Fujian as well as in Tianjin, in the Northeast country. His decades of experience in daily economic problems and academic history is not always appreciated, said Thomas. He is not familiar with economic and commercial policy, he added.
In 2014, he was raised to the vice-president of the National Development and Reform Commission of Chinas, the powerful state planner, according to Minxin Pei, editor-in-chief of China Leadership Monitor.
Three years later, he was promoted to president of the NDRC. During his stay at the state planner, he supervised the first years of the belt and road infrastructure plan, Xis Hallmark Foreign Policy Initiative.
At the end of 2023, the state media began to refer to the holding of management positions in the main groups of the Communist Party for the surveillance of the financial system, in addition to its government responsibilities leading economic and commercial affairs with the United States.
Before his meeting with Bessent and Greer, he will be supported by Liao Min, Vice-Minister of Finance and former member of the Lius negotiation team, and Li Chenggang, a former European educated lawyer who was appointed last month of the organization of world trade.
The two are commonly the English speakers and deeply know Beijing's efforts to prepare its economy against the potential shocks of the trade war.
However, analysts expressed doubt about the chances of a breakthrough in Switzerland.
All this will be decided above them [He and Bessent]said Gilholm. This comes back in large part to know if Trump will be willing to accept another close, fragile and focused agreement in the mold of the phase agreement A agreed during the first mandate of the American presidents.
While Beijing considered that besing as a well -balanced professional unlike some of the extreme Hawks of the Washington HES team seemed to have been authorized to carry out an initial commitment rather than as in -depth negotiation, said Gao Jian, an expert in foreign policy based in Shanghai to the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University.
Before the talks, one of Beijing's credits, he added, was that: appeasement cannot buy peace, or cannot compromise respect.
Additional reports by Cheng Leng in Hong Kong
