China’s trade tsar He Lifeng takes centre stage in US tariff talks

The vice premier will meet in Switzerland with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and chief trade negotiator Jamieson Greer after weeks of escalating tensions that have seen the world's top two economies slap tariffs on each other's imports of more than 100%.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged Xi to call him about a potential trade deal, but any off-ramp to the tensions is expected to run through He, who oversees U.S.-China economic and trade affairs.

Reuters interviewed 13 foreign investors and diplomats who met with He over the past year. They described the 70-year-old's evolution from a stiff Communist Party apparatchik with non-existent English and a reluctance to stray from prepared remarks into a more confident figure who has impressed them with his ability to get things done.

When the leaders of some of the world's largest companies flocked to Beijing for a business forum last month, many were left impressed by He, according to a U.S. business person briefed on the encounters.

Most of the people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential interactions with He, who also wields vast regulatory oversight over China's sprawling financial sector.

The vice premier has held at least 60 meetings with foreigners in the past year, according to Reuters' review of his public engagements. That marks a steady increase from 45 between March 2023, when he took office as vice premier, and March 2024.

China's State Council did not respond to a faxed request for comment on the talks.

DEFENDER OF STATUS QUO?

But despite the vice premier's increasing comfort with engaging with Western executives, many of the businesspeople interviewed by Reuters said that He was not a policy innovator.

The vice premier's newly improved reputation with American executives was likely enhanced because Chinese leaders appeared especially predictable and confident in the wake of chaos in the U.S., said the businessperson briefed about last month's meetings.

He last served as head of China's key macroeconomic planning agency, where he was responsible for formulating industrial policy, and has repeatedly defended Beijing's export-led growth strategy in meetings with foreigners.

A U.S. business person told Reuters that He, who has supported boosting manufacturing over domestic consumption, serves as Xi's "chief lieutenant for building a trillion-dollar surplus."

He at other meanings had also repeatedly brushed off complaints about Chinese overcapacity, which are shared by many countries that Beijing is now courting as it seeks export pressure valves and new cooperation avenues, three people told Reuters.

"On the daily level, He will be defending China's trade surplus," said Wen-Ti Sung, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub. "It's hard to see He softening down on the trade surplus, an issue pivotal to China's job creation."

The vice premier has been on the frontline of China's recent outreach to developed markets like Japan and the European Union, also hit by Trump's tariff barrage.

After Switzerland, He will travel to France for a high-level economic dialogue.

UNDERWHELMING START

Before He took on his current role, the economic portfolio was run by Liu He, a Harvard-educated economist with fluent English who negotiated a trade agreement with the United States during the first Trump administration.

While the vice premier has a PhD in economics from Xiamen University, his domestic-focused background meant he has had a learning curve in serving as China's economic frontman to the world.

Some American executives were underwhelmed by He after the official briefed them last July on the outcome of a key economic policy meeting, according to one person present.

The person said the vice premier, who under party conventions should retire in 2027, didn't look particularly vigorous at the briefing, where he was flanked by dozens of aides.

Predecessors of He like Liu and Wang Qishan, by contrast, were known among foreign interlocutors for their eloquence and relatively informal demeanour.

The vice premier also downplayed concerns about Beijing's rare earth export controls and the safety of Japanese nationals in China following major stabbing events after they were raised by a Japanese business delegation in February.

The businessperson briefed on He's March meetings described past discussions with the vice premier as akin to "talking to ChatGPT." But he said the Chinese official had more recently started to communicate in a way that appealed more to Western executives.

The person, who has met He multiple times, was also impressed by the vice premier's ability to explain Beijing's position on economic policy and deliver on promises for assistance in a way officials who aren't close to Xi haven't been able to. The source did not provide specifics.

Another foreign official who met He this year also said the vice premier was very aware of China's economic problems - which include deflationary pressures and an ageing population, on top of the tariffs and real-estate crisis - and provided a sophisticated analysis of the issues.

He also appeared very confident about the prospects of the homegrown AI startup Deepseek, the official said.

'TYPICAL BUREAUCRAT' AND DEMOLISHER

He rose through the local bureaucracy in his native Fujian province, where Xi built his power base as a local official in the 1990s and early 2000s. He became a trusted lieutenant of Xi around that time and attended the future leader's wedding, Reuters previously reported.

The official was transferred to the industrial port city of Tianjin in 2009, where he was nicknamed "He the Demolisher" by locals for embarking on a massive urban renewal campaign and expensive infrastructure projects that gave the city a shiny facade but also drove it deeper into debt.

Alfred Wu, a China expert at National University of Singapore, said that He focused heavily on boosting economic growth and was particularly "big on real estate and urban redevelopment, like many local officials at the time.

Wu, who met He while working as a journalist in Fujian, described the official as a "typical local bureaucrat and a very typical protégé of Xi Jinping."

His "number one priority is implementing Xi's directives, which puts him in more of a subordinate position," he added.