Why Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He has the most difficult job in the US-China trade talks
Liu He, a key adviser to President Xi Jinping, is facing pressure to reach ‘some kind of agreement’ with Washington, but cannot be seen to sacrifice too much
When China’s vice-premier, Liu He, set off for Washington on Tuesday to resume talks to avert a much-dreaded trade war, he was facing a difficult challenge.
Although President Xi Jinping pulls the strings, Liu – Xi’s top economic aide and the point man for the trade talks – is the obvious target to blame if negotiations go badly and tensions escalate sufficiently to damage the economy or even leave China in technological isolation.
Few people expect the talks to go smoothly. As Arthur Kroeber, research head at Gavekal Dragonomics in Hong Kong put it in a recent note, the rivalry between the US and China was not principally about trade, but was really about China’s emergence over the last five years “as a formidable bidder for economic and political influence, an aspirant to technological leadership, and a major global investor”.
Sources said the pressure was on Liu, the 66-year-old Harvard-trained technocrat, to achieve “some kind of agreement” ahead of a planned trip by vice-president Wang Qishan to Washington in early July.
“Liu faces a dilemma,” Hu Xingdou, an independent political economist said.