Xi’s Confidants
China’s negotiators carry experience and the trust of President Xi in Trump’s trade talks
.jpg){kind=link}
Xi’s Confidants
In June of 2025, President Trump and President Xi had their long-awaited call. 5 days after the call, the top American and Chinese negotiators met in London, adding another glimpse of hope to resolving the tariff wars. While President Trump has been focused on the domestic agenda, including getting the “Big Beautiful Bill” passed, he has remained active on China issues. From two TikTok extensions to fluctuating tariff rates, the Trump administration set its target clearly on China’s core interests. In response to the China hawks Trump nominated, the Chinese government has been dispatching its top officials on all policies at stake. Heading the trade talks are Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), Commerce Minister Wang Wentao (王文涛), and Li Chenggang (李成钢), who was recently promoted to Vice Minister of Commerce, the top U.S. trade negotiator from China. Many people in the United States may not be familiar with any of these names. The group of Chinese negotiators enjoys Xi’s trust and possesses expertise and experience on trade and tariffs.
He Lifeng: Economy Specialist and Vice Premier
Like Xi, He spent parts of his youth performing manual labor in the countryside due to the Cultural Revolution, without adequate education. However, He excelled in China’s college entrance exam and studied economics at Xiamen University, one of the top universities in the country. During an era when the government prioritized young people with professional knowledge, He finished his master’s degree in economics at age 29, which helped him land an economist job in the city government in Xiamen, one of China’s Special Economic Zones, in 1984. He served as Party Secretary of Quanzhou, Xiamen, and Binhai – all coastal cities and Special Economic Zones, where He took advantage of the policy benefits to build local infrastructure. In 2017, President Xi nominated He as Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic advisor to the President, a position from which He was elevated in 2023 to Vice Premier focused on economic issues. He Lifeng is not known for colorful public comments. He notably reinstated China’s trade strategy as consistent with that of President Xi and stressed that China is open to constructive conversations.
In future negotiations with the United States, He Lifeng will likely hold a tough stance, with a China-centered agenda approved by President Xi. Based on his resume, He does not have extensive experience with international trade negotiations, and lacks exposure to Western elites such as Scott Bessent, Trump’s Treasury Secretary. However, His most valuable asset was his close relationship with President Xi, one that few of Xi’s former negotiators enjoyed. In 1984, He began his first stint as economic advisor to his new superior, a newly appointed Deputy Mayor of Xiamen named Xi Jinping. From Xiamen to the central government, He directly advised Xi for 30 years, including 10 years as China’s top macroeconomics operator. Since Xi became president in 2012, He was quickly elevated to Beijing to assist Xi on economic issues, and was placed on a clear path to his role as Vice Premier. During his time in Beijing, He Lifeng adapted to economic policymaking under President Xi’s agenda. He does not have to turn heads during press conferences. All he needs to do is to focus China on its planned strategy against the United States. He Lifeng did not need a deep understanding of macroeconomics when he successfully solicited the 5.12 tariff pause. He simply needed to emphasize the central government’s position on trade and draw a hard line on China’s rare earth exports. With President Xi’s trust, He had the green light to flex China’s most valuable commodity and force the U.S. delegations to retrieve the tariffs because they fear a lose-lose scenario under which both countries’ economies take a major blow.
Wang Wentao: Career Politician and the Trade Talk’s Publicity Chair
Wang Wentao had a long career as a party official at different levels of government before embarking on his tenure as Minister of Commerce. Wang graduated with a philosophy degree from Fudan University, one of the most prestigious Chinese universities. He briefly served as a teacher at Shanghai University for Continuing Education on Air and Space Science, before getting promoted to Party Secretary of Shanghai’s Songjiang district. Wang was the Deputy Party Secretary of Huangpu district in 2007, one of the wealthiest districts in Shanghai, China’s financial center. Wang was promoted across five provinces, from Shanghai to Nanchang, the cradle of the Chinese Communist Party’s military, and China’s northern border province, Heilongjiang. Wang was called back to Beijing in 2020 to become the Minister of Commerce. In his current role, Wang has met multiple times with Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, consistently insisting on China’s resurging economy after COVID-19, citing a high amount of exports of China’s manufactured goods.
Wang’s earlier career included few clues about his style as Commerce Minister, but he is a career bureaucrat and a reliable Communist Party official groomed by the Chinese system. He only overlapped with President Xi for 7 months in Shanghai, when Xi served as Shanghai’s Party Secretary. While most Chinese officials spend most of their careers in one province, Wang’s tenures in the five provinces each lasted 3-4 years. The geographic diversity and balanced length of Wang’s time in previous positions are clear signs of Wang’s upward trajectory. Wang never had intensive interactions with President Xi, but he was one of the party officials steadily groomed for a higher role in the future. Wang’s decades-long experience as a party official ensured that he would uphold a high level of loyalty towards the government. This means that he can be entrusted with being the government’s voice internationally. As Wang’s trajectory indicated, he has been releasing public statements to send positive signals to the United States. In February, he publicly congratulated Jamieson Greer for his nomination as the U.S. trade representative. In his statement, Wang invited the Trump administration to create a trade environment that is beneficial to businesses from both countries. He urged Trump to avoid tariff hikes because they always damaged U.S.-China relations. This statement is an example of Wang sending positive messages to Washington. Such public exchanges are crucial for major world powers like the United States and China. Wang Wentao earned the trust of his party with a long career, making him a good fit for presenting a friendly face to the United States amid trade tensions.
Li Chenggang: The Professional Trade Negotiator
Li Chenggang is a technocrat with a lifetime of preparation to negotiate for China against U.S. challenges. While He and Wang have both been in their posts for 3-5 years, Li was serving as China’s representative at the World Trade Organization until April. His promotion was a move to bring him to the negotiating table. The role of Vice Minister of Commerce was mainly added to elevate his ranking in the government, while the true purpose of this promotion is to have Li take over as the International Trade Negotiation Representative. Li is among the best Chinese experts on trade negotiations. Graduated with a law degree from Peking University, he was among the chosen ones of his generation. Out of school in 1989, he began working for branches of China’s trade departments until his WTO appointment in 2021.
Notably, Li served a seven-year term as Director of the Treaty and Law Department, with a concurrent secondary position as Vice Mayor of Qingdao. His time as director enhanced his knowledge of trade laws, while a secondary position was considered an enrichment of his resume for future promotions. Lastly, Li’s four years as WTO Representative gave him exposure to trade negotiators from other countries, cementing his status as China’s top legal professional on trade. In 2023, when the United States imposed tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum, Li called the United States a “unilateral bully”, with the WTO eventually ruling the U.S. tariffs as unfair. At the recent press conference in Geneva, Li called the negotiations constructive and stated that China will always be open to “fair and reciprocal negotiations”.
Li Chenggang’s professionalism can facilitate He Lifeng’s negotiating strategies, rendering China the edge during the advanced stages of the 2025 negotiations. While country leaders tend to favor political allies for top cabinet positions, their successes also hinge on the career technocrats in charge of carrying out their plans. He Lifeng may be the face of the trade talks, but Li’s addition gives them a competent manager of all details in their exchanges with the United States. Li has dealt with trade representatives from 166 countries and has an intimate familiarity with negotiation tactics under different situations. He could profile Trump’s trade team to customize a Chinese trade strategy that fits He Lifeng’s agenda and can limit U.S. sanctions. Team Trump does not have a professional negotiator on board. Li Chenggang brings legal expertise and international vision to Team China, with a lifetime of commitment to maximizing China’s global trade interests.
The Matchup
Serving in his third term, President Xi has solidified his cabinet with officials who have his trust and the expertise to put China’s interests first. He Lifeng, the leader of the Chinese delegation, will continue to advance Xi’s economic strategy that emphasizes deterring America’s economic influence. Wang Wentao is not as close as He is to Xi, but he is a career party official who acts as the mediating voice during parts of the negotiation. Li Chenggang provides rich legal and trade-related experiences to protect China’s economic interests during trade talks, a political negotiation. All 3 officials have established battle-tested trust with the President. While President Trump recruited business executives and non-mainstream economists to represent the United States, China is approaching the new round of trade talks with negotiators who are experienced enough to design and maneuver strategies and have Xi’s ear during the engagement.
Edison Chen is an intern for China Focus at The Carter Center and studies Public Policy at Duke University.
The views expressed in this article represent those of the author(s) and not those of The Carter Center.
Peace is always on the back foot. To promote peaceful cooperation between the United States and China, all content from the Monitor is provided here for free. If you would like to contribute to our work, please feel free to make a donation to The Carter Center. Please indicate your donation is for China Focus.
That’s all from Atlanta. Y’all be good.
 | A guest post by
|