The current United States-China relationship is described by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as “productive” and “in a very comfortable place” after last week’s two-hour phone call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“The US relationship with China is in a very comfortable place,” Bessent said Tuesday during a trip to Sao Paolo, Brazil. “We are going to be rivals, but we want the rivalry to be fair. We do not want to decouple from China, but we do need to de-risk.”
He said the US intends to “retake sovereignty in strategic industries,” citing critical minerals, semiconductors and medicines where US dependence on Chinese supply chains became evident during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I think we can have a very productive relationship, but we’re always going to be competitors,” he said. “I’m convinced that the US is winning the AI race. We have the technological lead.”
“In the long run, China must rebalance. The world cannot have a situation where China persistently runs a US$1 trillion trade surplus,” he said.
Just four months ago, Bessent accused China of seeking to damage the global economy after Beijing imposed sweeping export controls on rare earths and other critical minerals, disrupting supply chains worldwide.
At that time (October 10, 2025), Trump threatened to impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese imports and tighten US export controls on critical software, accusing Beijing of acting “hostile” and warning that high-level talks with Xi could be called off. Both Washington and Beijing later agreed to deescalate the situation, paving a way for Trump and Xi to meet face-to-face in South Korea on October 30.
Last month, the US said China had fulfilled its initial commitment to purchase 12 million metric tons of soybeans from American suppliers. Bessent also said China was supplying rare earth magnets largely as expected, with fulfillment rates reaching about 90%, describing the situation as “quite satisfactory.”
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Trump said in a social media post on February 4 that Beijing indicated it would purchase US oil and gas and consider buying additional agricultural products, including lifting soybean purchases to 20 million tons for the current season and committing to 25 million tons for the next.
“The relationship with China, and my personal relationship with President Xi, is an extremely good one, and we both realize how important it is to keep it that way,” Trump wrote. “I believe that there will be many positive results achieved over the next three years of my presidency having to do with President Xi and the People’s Republic of China!”
He also said they discussed a range of major issues, including Taiwan, the Russia-Ukraine war, the situation in Iran, military matters and his planned April visit to China.
Soybean purchasesSome analysts said Beijing was fully aware that large-scale soybean purchases would help Trump create political leverage ahead of the US midterm elections in November, with benefits flowing directly to rural conservative voters and reinforcing their support for him. They noted that China does not face a soybean shortage and can readily source supplies from Brazil.
Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, said China’s current scale of US soybean purchases is mainly aimed at creating a positive atmosphere ahead of the Xi-Trump meeting in April, hoping Washington will compromise on the Taiwan issue.
Dennis Weng, an associate professor of political science at Sam Houston State University, told Taiwan’s NOWnews that, by purchasing some more US soybeans China can, in return, ask the US for looser US chip export controls, longer technology cooperation and delays to restrictions on key materials.
In January, Trump approved exports of Nvidia’s H200 graphics processing units (GPUs) to China. Chinese firms hope they can get the company’s Blackwell chips in the future.
A Jiangsu-based columnist writing under the pen name “Sukanqianyan” says Trump’s tone during the call marked a clear shift toward pragmatism compared with his previous ambiguity.
“Trump repeated that US-China ties are the world’s most important bilateral relationship and said he welcomes China’s success and deeper cooperation,” he writes. “This marks a shift from campaign rhetoric to a more pragmatic tone.”
“On Taiwan, Trump signaled respect for China’s concerns, promised continued communication and pledged stable ties during his term. That amounts to putting a temporary brake on the most sensitive disputes, including trade and technology tensions, and military friction over Taiwan,” he says.
However, the columnist says such assurances would only carry weight if Trump would turn words into deeds, stop incremental moves on Taiwan and abandon protectionist trade practices.
New STARTChinese commentators noted that the Xi-Trump call on February 4 came on the eve of the expiration of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as New START, the last remaining bilateral nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, which was due to lapse on February 5.
They noted that Xi had held a two-hour video call with Russian President Vladimir Putin just hours before speaking with Trump.
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A Henan-based columnist writing under the pen name “Xingyue” says in an article that the looming nuclear deadline formed the critical backdrop to Xi’s separate conversation with Trump and Putin.
“Without China, the US and Russia would have to face each other alone,” he says. “With China, the dynamic became triangular, which is the most stable geometric structure.”
“Putin needs to show he is not isolated, while Trump needs to show he is not creating crises. Beijing gave both leaders what they need by positioning itself as mediator,” he says.
He adds that the Xi-Trump call provided Beijing a chance to complain about the United States’ $11.1 billion arms sales to Taiwan, which was announced last December.
The New START, signed in 2010 by then US president Barack Obama and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, capped deployed nuclear warheads and delivery systems and allowed regular inspections and data exchanges. The pact, extended to February 5, 2026, effectively stalled after Covid-19 halted inspections in 2020 and ties worsened following the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict. Russia stopped sharing deployment data in September 2022 and the US ceased publishing total warhead figures in May 2023.
Putin later proposed a one-year extension to 2027, but Washington has not formally responded. Trump has said that the New START is “a badly negotiated deal” and “is being grossly violated.” He said he wants another deal.
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Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3
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