‘I misspoke’: US official blunders by mistakenly declaring key China talks dead

A top Treasury Department official said he was incorrect in saying that the US had ended formal economic dialogue with Beijing, adding that Secretary Steven Mnuchin continues to hold private discussions with China.

“I misspoke,” David Malpass, Treasury’s undersecretary for international affairs, told reporters in Buenos Aires on Sunday. “Secretary Mnuchin has high-level talks with China,” he said, reiterating that the department has “private” conversations with senior officials in China.

Malpass’s remarks came hours after he told a conference in the Argentine capital that Treasury had “discontinued” the US-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue, a long-standing channel for formal talks between the nation’s finance chiefs. He has said in recent months that the US is “disappointed” with China’s retreat from market reforms, citing the government’s growing influence in the Chinese economy and its autocratic rule.

The retraction created some confusion on Sunday, as the future of the dialogue remains in doubt. Malpass’s comments suggested that the Trump administration was moving away from the formal comprehensive discussions in favour of talks by Mnuchin, but neither Malpass nor Treasury officials would clarify the status of the forum. Malpass declined to say whether Treasury’s office that oversees the economic dialogue between the nations remained open.

But the US Treasury moved quickly to correct the record after Malpass’s initial speech. Tony Sayegh, head of Treasury’s public affairs department, tweeted a correction while on a military flight to Argentina with Mnuchin, saying that comprehensive talks with China have not been “discontinued.”

In his retraction, Malpass said Treasury hasn’t changed its strategy on China. “There hasn’t been a decision on the future of the” dialogue, he added.