Steve Daines to Attend China Development Forum
Scheduled to Meet Senior Chinese Leaders
As the US and China engage in a tariff war, attention is focused on whether a US senator visiting China will lay the groundwork for a bilateral summit aimed at a trade agreement.
Donald Trump, President of the United States (left), and Xi Jinping, President of China. Photo by Yonhap News
According to Bloomberg and other sources on the 21st, Senator Steve Daines (Republican, Montana), a close associate of President Trump, arrived in Beijing, China the day before to attend the China Development Forum (CDF) held in Beijing on the 23rd and 24th. He is scheduled to meet with senior Chinese leaders on the 22nd, ahead of the forum's opening.
Senator Daines is expected to become the first American politician to publicly meet with senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party since President Trump’s return to the White House. His visit has attracted attention especially as a bilateral summit has recently emerged as a top agenda item.
Earlier, the US Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that the two countries are discussing holding a summit. Subsequently, on the 17th, President Trump said that Chinese President Xi Jinping would visit the US "in the not too distant future."
Bloomberg also reported that Senator Daines hopes to meet President Xi during his visit to China and lay the groundwork for a US-China summit.
Senator Daines has rare experience among US politicians in Asia, having worked for six years in China and Hong Kong as an executive at the American consumer goods company Procter & Gamble (P&G) in the 1990s.
However, there are views that more time is needed before President Trump and President Xi meet. Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said, "If the (US-China) situation worsens further to the point of causing serious damage, that would provide the motivation for the two leaders to meet."
Meanwhile, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that it has "no information to provide" regarding the possibility of Senator Daines meeting President Xi during his visit to China.
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