Talk about the hot spot

According to Reuters and other foreign media reports on October 27, during a trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to participate in the ASEAN Summit, Trump¡¯s accompanying U.S. officials held talks with Chinese representatives.

After the China-US talks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant, who visited Malaysia with Trump, made it clear in an interview with This Week magazine: "I think we (China and the United States) have reached substantial progress, that is, avoiding tariffs and laying the foundation for dialogue for next week's China-US leaders 'meeting."

Although he did not provide details of the relevant framework agreements reached between the two sides, he said that China and the United States have made some progress in the areas of exemption from additional tariffs on imported goods and rare-earth export controls, which are central to the tensions in China-US trade relations.

Interestingly, Bescent also mentioned his "personal interests"-he said that the current dialogue atmosphere between China and the United States is good. Based on the consensus reached in this Sino-US dialogue, China may resume large-scale purchases of American soybeans after extending the "Sino-US trade war truce agreement". Bescent not only said that he owns a soybean farm worth about $25 million in North Dakota, but also said, "I am actually a soybean farmer ¡­ when the agreement is announced, American soybean farmers will be satisfied with it".

It is not difficult to see that the United States is satisfied with the results of this Sino-US dialogue, and believes that the prospect, especially the possible meeting between Chinese and American leaders during the APEC summit, is "bright".

However, China has another statement on this.

Li Chenggang, Vice Minister of Commerce and Trade Negotiator of China, who also participated in the Sino-US negotiations, said that China and the United States did reach a "preliminary consensus" during this talks, and the two sides discussed fentanyl tariffs and anti-drug affairs, In-depth and constructive discussions were conducted on sensitive measures and issues such as punitive ship and port charges. Li Chenggang made it clear that during this dialogue, the US expressed a tough attitude, while China's stance on safeguarding (its own) interests was firm. It is not difficult to see that in China's eyes, there are still major differences in this China-US dialogue, and neither the United States nor China are willing to make substantive concessions on the core agenda.

It can be seen that there are differences in attitudes between China and the United States towards this new change in trade negotiations. This is largely due to the "changeability" that has always existed in the Trump administration-since Trump's first term, he has repeatedly implemented changeable policies and measures in trade and other fields, which has caused complaints from all over the world, thus seriously damaging the strategic credibility of the Trump administration in economic and trade fields. Under such circumstances, it is completely reasonable for China to continue to be cautious about the Trump administration even though the framework of the trade agreement has been preliminarily finalized but has not yet landed, which is also out of the protection of China's national interests.

It is indisputable that the preliminary settlement of this agreement framework is indeed a remarkable positive change that China and the United States have seen years after the trade war.But whether the U.S. is currently refusing concessions, strong attitude in the negotiations, or the Trump administration has previously "discussed" many times, it has made China must be careful. In this case, the high-level summit will be a major role in the trade negotiations between China and the United States - whether the "trade war" can take a real turn or even eliminate, whether the relevant measures can be implemented, and whether Trump can "say it done" at the high-level summit in China and the United States.