Exclusive | How US played hardball over top Chinese economic adviser’s Washington trip
Beijing planned for Liu He to head a 40-strong delegation, but US only accepted a quarter of that number
China had planned to send a large delegation of about 40 people to accompany its most senior economic adviser, Liu He, on his recent visit to Washington but after the US objected the number was cut to about 10, sources told the South China Morning Post.
That meant Liu, President Xi Jinping’s right-hand man, travelled with a smaller entourage when he left Beijing late last month. It included Vice-Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen, Vice-Minister of Finance Zhu Guangyao and Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Zheng Zeguang.
Chinese state media portrayed Liu’s five-day visit positively, but the downsizing of the delegation showed the Trump administration is playing hardball with Beijing.
Liu was the second member of the Communist Party’s powerful Politburo to visit the United States last month, following Yang Jiechi, China’s top diplomat, who also sought to defuse escalating tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
Both visits failed to yield substantial results, with Beijing failing to persuade Washington to restart the comprehensive economic dialogue (CED), a key negotiating channel that was suspended by the US last year.