US senator meets China vice premier with trade tensions high

Bloomberg News on Mar 22, 2025

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U.S. Sen. Steve Daines stressed his belief in “constructive dialogue” during a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Beijing that took place against a backdrop of heightened trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.

“I’ve always believed in having constructive dialogue and that has been the nature of all my visits to China over the course of many years,” Daines, a Republican from Montana, said Saturday on his sixth visit to the country as a senator. “On this visit, of course, we’re at a time when we have important issues to discuss between our two countries.”

Daines reiterated President Donald Trump’s call for China to stop the flow of fentanyl precursors from the Asian nation and said he hopes further “high level talks” between the sides will take place “in the near future,” according to a readout of the meeting posted by the U.S. embassy in Beijing on social media.

The Chinese vice premier’s public meeting with the senator is his first with a sitting American politician since Trump returned to office. Daines is scheduled to hold talks with Premier Li Qiang on Sunday, where he is expected to be briefed on developments in China and its government’s “broad policies.”

The gatherings take place before an April 1 deadline for the U.S. to review Beijing’s compliance with the so-called phase one trade deal struck during Trump’s first term. The U.S. president plans to impose sweeping reciprocal duties on trading partners around the world on April 2.

Daines told the vice premier that he has “many old friends” in the Asian country, while He said the senator should “know China better” than many given his previous work experience there. The U.S. politician worked in China and Hong Kong for six years in the 1990s as an executive for Procter & Gamble Co.

Daines played an important role as an intermediary during the last trade war between the two nations, holding high-level meetings in 2019 with officials in Beijing, including President Xi Jinping’s top negotiator at the time, Liu He.

The senator announced his plans to visit Beijing on social media earlier this month, shortly after meeting with Trump at the Oval Office. At the time, he said he discussed with Trump his plans to raise the issue of “the flow of deadly fentanyl” into the U.S. from China, as well as the importance of “establishing fair trade” between the two countries.

(Fran Wang contributed to this report.)