U.S. and Chinese officials meet to defuse trade tensions in Malaysia

Senior officials from America and China sat down for crucial discussions in Malaysia’s capital on Saturday, hoping to prevent their trade dispute from escalating and ensure that the two presidents can meet face-to-face next ￰0￱ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng and trade negotiator Li Chenggang at the Merdeka 118 tower, the world’s second-highest building in Kuala ￰1￱ discussions come at a tense ￰2￱ Donald Trump has warned he might slap 100% tariffs on Chinese products starting November ￰3￱ threat came after China put tough new limits on selling rare earth magnets and minerals to other ￰4￱ materials are critical for many ￰5￱ dispute has damaged a careful agreement that Bessent, Greer, and He had worked out over four earlier meetings since May.

Recently, Washington added thousands more Chinese companies to a list that blocks them from buying American ￰6￱ responded by announcing worldwide restrictions on rare earth exports on October ￰7￱ the Malaysian hosts nor the American and Chinese teams shared much information about what they would discuss or whether they planned to tell reporters about any ￰8￱ ready for the big meeting The three officials are trying to clear the path for Trump and Xi Jinping to sit down next ￰9￱ meeting is scheduled for an economic summit in South Korea, where leaders from countries around the Pacific Ocean will ￰10￱ conversation between the two presidents could touch on giving some temporary breaks on tariffs, easing technology restrictions, and getting China to buy American soybeans ￰11￱ before the Saturday talks began, Trump left Washington to start his trip through ￰12￱ told reporters what he wants to discuss with ￰13￱ dealing with China’s decision to stop buying ￰14￱ will be one topic, Trump ￰15￱ , the self-ruled island that China says belongs to it, will also come ￰16￱ made clear he has no intention of visiting Taiwan ￰17￱ to avoid worse damage The world’s two biggest economies want to prevent their tariff war from returning to extremely high levels on both ￰18￱ Bessent and Greer first met with Chinese counterparts in Geneva in May, they agreed to a 90-day pause in the ￰19￱ brought tariffs down sharply to about 55% on the American side and 30% on the Chinese ￰20￱ also got rare-earth magnets moving ￰21￱ extended this agreement in later talks in London and ￰22￱ was set to end on November ￰23￱ things started falling apart at the end of September.

America’s Commerce Department greatly expanded a list that automatically includes companies more than 50% owned by firms already on that ￰24￱ blocked American exports to thousands more Chinese ￰25￱ hit back with new rare earth export controls on October 10, trying to stop these materials from being used in military ￰26￱ and Greer called China’s action a “global supply chain power grab” and promised America and its friends would not accept these ￰27￱ reports say the Trump team is thinking about restricting even more exports to China, including items like laptops and jet ￰28￱ added more tension on Friday by starting a new investigation into whether China failed to keep promises made in a 2020 trade deal called the “Phase One” ￰29￱ deal had stopped their trade war during Trump’s first term as ￰30￱ a premium crypto trading community free for 30 days - normally $100/mo.