US Senator Steve Daines sat down with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing on Sunday, accompanied by top executives from leading American companies. It came after the China Development Forum, an annual gathering of foreign business leaders discussing economic and trade matters.
Daines, a senator and Republican and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was part of a delegation that consisted of CEOs from Qualcomm, Pfizer, Cargill, and Boeing. Addressing Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, Daines stressed the historical business relationship of these companies with China and the cumulative experience of more than 275 years of doing business there.
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The trip is the first by an American lawmaker since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. Beijing has been asking for high-level talks with the Trump administration hoping to relieve trade tension and avoid new tariff increases from Washington. Daines, who was instrumental in the US-China trade talks under Trump’s first term, has strong China expertise having lived in Guangzhou and Hong Kong during his time working for Procter & Gamble in the 1990s.
China is now seeking foreign investment in the face of economic downturns and mounting US tariff pressure. Premier Li informed Daines that China is still devoted to resolving business issues and fairly treating domestic and foreign firms.
The two countries have seen tensions mounting over Trump’s further tariffs on Chinese products, mainly over Beijing’s reported failure to contain exports of the highly addictive fentanyl. The new tariffs are to be imposed in April by Trump, and a US assessment of China’s adherence to the 2020 “phase one” trade agreement is to run through April 1.
Daines also sat down with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Saturday to talk about efforts to prevent the flow of precursors of fentanyl into the US.
