China’s top economic adviser Liu He still doesn’t know who to talk to in US about trade

A key mission for China’s top economic adviser when he visited the United States last week was figuring out who to talk to in the US administration about a looming trade war, but sources said chaotic changes in the White House hampered those efforts.

Liu He, right-hand man of President Xi Jinping, went to Washington in late February aiming to contain rising trade tensions between the two nations, but no breakthrough was reached – and it was not even clear who his US counterpart would be.  

“China doesn’t know whom they can talk to in [Donald] Trump’s administration. Neither do we,” said a source familiar with Liu’s trip.

Liu met US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn while he was in Washington. 

The source said Beijing had previously attempted to establish various points of contact within the Trump administration. They include Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Mnuchin. But Kushner’s fate in the White House is uncertain after he lost his security clearance for top secret information, Ross has been marginalised and Mnuchin is largely involved with domestic issues, the source said.