Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will arrive in Seoul on Wednesday for two days of economic and trade talks with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, both governments confirmed on Sunday — the final negotiating round before a state visit by Donald Trump to Beijing on Thursday and Friday. China's Ministry of Commerce said He would lead an inter-ministerial delegation.
For Bessent, a former Soros Fund Management chief investment officer who took over Treasury in January 2025, the Seoul leg is the second stop of a quick East Asia tour. He will first meet Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama in Tokyo on Tuesday, then fly to Seoul for the two-day session with He, before joining Trump's party in Beijing.
The two sides are working towards what one Treasury official described as "a short list of signable items" — package deliverables on which Trump and Xi Jinping can put their names later in the week. Officials in both governments declined to detail the list, but South China Morning Post reported it would include extensions of agricultural-purchase commitments, a possible 90-day pause on a planned new tranche of US tariffs and movement on critical-minerals export licensing.
He Lifeng, 70, a long-time confidant of Xi Jinping, has served as Beijing's lead negotiator on economic and trade affairs with Washington since taking office as vice-premier in March 2023. He led the Chinese delegation through the Phase One trade-deal review in 2024 and was also Beijing's point person during last year's tariff escalation under Trump's opening months.
Seoul is hosting the talks at the request of both sides — its third turn as a US-China venue in eighteen months. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung is expected to host a working dinner for both delegations on Wednesday evening, with Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul attending.
The talks are taking place against a fragile, headline-driven backdrop. Brent crude is again above $104 a barrel after Trump rejected an Iranian counter-proposal on Sunday, and Asian equities have moved sharply on Iran headlines through the week. Bessent, in a CNBC interview on Friday, said the US-China track was "decoupled, intentionally" from the Iran file but acknowledged "they share a calendar".
A separate strand of the visit centres on currency. Bessent is expected to raise concerns about both the renminbi's recent weakness against the dollar and Japan's yen-defence operations, which last week saw the Bank of Japan sell roughly $54 billion in dollar assets to stem speculative selling against the yen.
No joint statement is planned for the Seoul leg. Both delegations will brief separately on Wednesday evening, officials said, with substantive outcomes — if any — saved for the Beijing summit.