Xi’s top economic adviser to visit Washington next week

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will travel on a follow-up trip to Washington next week after the visit of White House officials to Beijing to discuss trade tensions between the two countries, Bloomberg reports.

White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Liu will be visiting to “continue the discussions with the president’s economic team.” Liu is considered one of President Xi Jinping’s most trusted economic advisers, but also a reform-minded policymaker with training in the United States.

This visit will be focused on the goal of averting a trade war that appears increasingly likely after last week’s tense negotiations in Beijing. The delegations from the US and China both put forward hard-line stances with minimal desire for compromise, the US asking for a $200 billion reduction from China’s bilateral trade deficit whilst China demanded ‘market economy’ status at the WTO, amongst other conditions.