According to sources cited by Reuters, officials from the United States and China held a technical trade meeting at the US Department of the Treasury on Thursday, September 25. The discussions revolved around trade and economic issues but did not touch upon the TikTok ownership transfer agreement, nor did they involve upcoming high-level negotiations.
The focus of this round of meetings, as reported by insiders, was on the technical details previously discussed in earlier dialogues rather than any new policy breakthroughs.
So far, the US and China have held four summits in Stockholm, London, Geneva, and Madrid. However, on core issues, progress has not been made, including China’s request for the US to lower tariffs, the US’s demand for China to decrease purchases of American agricultural products, and the increasingly serious issue of China’s domestic overcapacity production, leading to a flood of cheap export goods worldwide.
During his visit to the US, Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao held a roundtable meeting with Chinese-funded companies in New York on Tuesday, September 23, including over ten companies from cross-border e-commerce, logistics, telecommunications, and other sectors.
Wang Wentao stated that after multiple rounds of economic and trade negotiations, China and the US have reached a series of important consensus outcomes, effectively promoting the stabilization of the economic and trade relations between the two countries.
At the same time, he also warned against the internal and external integration of Chinese companies.
Chinese e-commerce platforms like Temu and Shein have gained market share in the US at lower prices. After the Trump administration revoked a low-price small package tariff exemption policy, the advantage of Chinese e-commerce has been significantly weakened.
For Chinese tech platforms dominating e-commerce and food delivery businesses, discounts are at the core of their domestic and international business strategies.
In the US, food delivery costs around $10, while in China, due to severe industry integration, tech giants attract consumers with maliciously low prices to grab market share, sometimes even delivering a drink for free.
In addition to food delivery and e-commerce, Beijing also stated that efforts are being made to avoid overcapacity in domestic industries such as automobiles and solar energy materials.
President Trump will sign an executive order at the White House on Thursday to pave the way for the sale of TikTok. This means that the White House allows TikTok to be sold from a Chinese company to a group of American investors, in compliance with the requirements of US law for the year 2024.