Top American and Chinese officials raised points of friction between their countries in a recent phone call, even as they lay the groundwork for the next summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in September.Vice Premier He Lifeng, who handles China’s economic and trade affairs with the US, addressed a recent uptick in tensions in his call with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Thursday.“The Chinese side expressed serious concern over the recent economic and trade restrictions imposed by the United States on China,” the official Xinhua News Agency said. At the same time, the two sides agreed to “enhance communication, build mutual trust and dispel doubt,” the report added.In a social media post, Bessent said he told the Chinese side that Washington expects “Beijing to fully meet its commitments on rare earths and US agricultural products.” Trump’s trade team believes China is not abiding by the US understanding of their trade deal, Bloomberg reported, though the administration is reluctant to take Beijing to task and risk pushing the two countries back into a trade war. The world’s two largest economies last year struck a trade truce that suspended some tariffs and other export curbs.Cracks have appeared in the relationship, however, including over fresh import duties as Trump moves to rebuild his tariff wall, access to rare earth minerals, potential shipments of Chinese weaponry to Iran, and the rollout of Chinese AI models.Those open-weight AI models can compete with some of the most advanced systems developed by US firms and have spurred worries in Washington. Bessent recently suggested the US may crack down on what he described as potential intellectual property theft on the part of Chinese AI firms.The US also issued restrictions on foreign-made robots and inverters, citing “supply chain vulnerabilities.” The Federal Communications Commission’s announcement did not mention Beijing directly, but since most of those items are produced in China, the curbs amounted to a ban on its products.Wu Xinbo, director of Fudan University’s Center for American Studies, said He’s remarks signal that China is “genuinely unhappy” about the restrictions that the US imposed since the last Xi-Trump summit. Still, the call pointed to continued preparation for the next leaders’ meeting, he added.Wu said possible next steps could include in-person economic consultations between He and his American counterparts, with progress on a board of trade coming first, while action on a board of investment would likely need more time. Bessent said his discussion with He included the trade and investment boards, which the US and China agreed to form during Trump’s meeting with Xi in May.Bessent and He have met regularly over the past year and a half to discuss sensitive elements of US-China relations, including tariffs, rare earths and the social media app TikTok. That process produced a fragile detente that paved the way for Trump’s state visit to Beijing. Published on July 31, 2026