Trans-Pacific View | Diplomacy | East Asia

The Paris Prelude: How Quiet Diplomacy Is Shaping the Coming Trump-Xi Summit

This weekend’s meetings between China’s vice premier and the U.S. treasury secretary and trade representative will help determine the outcomes of the big summit in April.

In this May 12, 2025 file photo, U.S. and Chinese delegations, led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, meet for trade talks in Geneva, Switzerland.

In global diplomacy, the most consequential conversations often occur far from the flashy glare of leaders’ grandstanding or photo-ops. Such is the case this weekend in Paris, where China’s economic czar, Vice Premier He Lifeng, is meeting two key American officials: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

In the midst of continuing turmoil engulfing much of the Middle East, don’t miss the strategic significance of this Paris meeting. The Chinese and U.S. delegations are preparing the grounds for the coming high-stakes summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, scheduled in Beijing from March 31 to April 2, 2026.

If the leaders’ summit is the political theater, then these Paris parleys can be understood as the last minute backstage priming and polishing – where the final versions of the script will be finetuned and finalized, the compromises sketched, and the potential breakthroughs quietly orchestrated.

Given their continued tensions, neither Washington nor Beijing would concede symbolic ground by attending such negotiations on the other’s soil – thus the decision to meet in a third country. Europe offers both mid-point convenience as well as much needed solitude for sequestering over knots that must be untied.

For these three top officials, their Paris parleys mark the final preparatory round before the coming Trump-Xi summit. Their task is straightforward in principle but daunting in practice: identify areas where both governments can claim progress and reduce the risk that the leaders’ meeting collapses under the weight of their unresolved differences.

Together, these officials embody the trade and finance pillars of China-U.S. economic ties. He Lifeng, China’s vice premier in charge of economic policy and a close confidant of Xi Jinping, has emerged as Beijing’s principal negotiator with Washington. Scott Bessent represents the financial and macroeconomic dimension of U.S. policy, while Jamieson Greer, as trade representative, manages the politically sensitive terrain of tariffs, market access, and trade policy. 

The institutional roles of this trio place them at the center of the current China-U.S. ties. Their bureaucratic networks have interacted regularly and the two sides have already held five rounds of talks – in Geneva, London, Stockholm, Madrid and Kuala Lumpur – to manage Trump’s unprecedented tariff war since April last year.

From that vantage point, this March 14-15 meeting in Paris represents the culmination of months of preparatory exchanges that should have streamlined much of what needs to be finalized.

To be fair, the Paris meeting will not produce any final formal blue prints for the Trump-Xi summit. Their main task will be to hammer out consensus on as many issues as possible, potentially including large commercial deals; tariffs and other trade restrictions; technology and supply chains; and investment and financial relations.

Given Trump’s deficit-driven approach to tariffs, the most immediate deliverables being discussed involve major purchase commitments by Beijing. Foremost among these is a potential contract for Chinese airlines to buy 500 civilian aircraft from Boeing, which could become, in Trumpian parlance, the largest commercial aviation deal in U.S. history.

Such agreements serve a dual political purpose. For Washington, they demonstrate that engagement with China can produce tangible economic benefits for American industry. For Beijing, they signal willingness to stabilize economic relations without having to concede on basic structural fault lines.

Agricultural imports form another major element in healing American anxieties. China is reportedly considering expanded purchases of U.S. soybeans this season, from 12 million metric tons to 20 million metric tons – an issue that resonates strongly with American domestic politics, particularly in the Midwest and........

© The Diplomat