U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he still expects President Donald Trump to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, despite rising tensions between Washington and Beijing following China’s decision to tighten exports of rare earth metals. According to Bessent, the U.S. is considering every possible response to Beijing’s move.
“The president will meet with Party Chairman Xi in Korea — I believe that meeting is still on,” Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business. He added that there had been “substantial communication” between the two sides over the weekend, after Beijing failed to respond to Washington’s inquiries regarding last week’s decision to impose new export restrictions.
The Chinese measures — broad global controls covering exports of any products containing even trace amounts of certain rare earth elements — triggered a sharp reaction from the White House. In response, President Trump threatened to cancel his planned meeting with Xi at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea later this month. He also announced plans to impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods starting November 1.
“This is China versus the entire world,” Bessent stressed. “They’ve pointed a bazooka at the supply chains and the industrial base of the free world, and we are not going to tolerate it.”
According to the Treasury chief, Washington will not allow such export restrictions and monitoring to continue, yet he believes that Beijing remains open to dialogue.
“We’ll be consulting with our allies this week, and we expect strong international support — from Europe, from India, and from the democracies of Asia,” Bessent said.
As Bloomberg reports, U.S. and Chinese officials are also set to hold staff-level consultations in Washington this week during the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Bessent himself expects to meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Asia before the potential Trump-Xi encounter. He Lifeng has represented Beijing in several rounds of trade negotiations with Washington this year.
When asked what leverage the U.S. might use to pressure China into easing its restrictions, Bessent replied that “all options remain on the table.” Still, he expressed cautious optimism:
“I believe this situation can be de-escalated. But we are ready to do whatever it takes and to adopt whatever posture is necessary.”
Thus, despite harsh rhetoric and threats of mutual economic measures, Washington — according to Bloomberg — appears to be keeping the door open for dialogue with Beijing, while preparing for decisive action if China refuses to change course.
This article was prepared based on materials published by Bloomberg. The author does not claim authorship of the original text but presents their interpretation of the content for informational purposes.
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