China and the United States are still talking, and they’re keeping it that way. On Thursday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu and US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau held a call to go over “key issues,” both governments said the next day in nearly identical statements.
They didn’t name which topics came up, but the timing says a lot. The discussion came just weeks after top officials met face-to-face in Geneva and temporarily dropped tariffs on most goods. Both sides are now working toward a wider deal.
According to Bloomberg, Ma and Landau’s exchange is seen by some analysts as a sign that the US finally has a go-to person on the Chinese side. Dan Wang, director for China at Eurasia Group, said it shows the communication line from Geneva “is working.”
While no new agreement came out of Thursday’s call, just the fact it happened matters. Especially in an environment where even small diplomatic progress is rare.
Beijing sets pace with new ambassador talks and fentanyl pressure
Earlier this week, Ma sat down with the new US Ambassador to China, David Perdue. In that meeting, China signaled it’s still looking to push talks forward. Perdue posted after the meeting that he shared President Donald Trump’s goals for the relationship. “I look forward to working with the Ministry and counterparts to achieve concrete outcomes for the American people,” he said.
It’s no secret what some of those “concrete outcomes” are supposed to be. Trump has pushed hard on China to do more to stop fentanyl precursor exports. US officials believe those ingredients fuel the opioid crisis back home. Chinese academics say that’s likely what’s coming next in talks.
Xinbo Wu, head of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, said the call could mean the two governments are “reconnecting” diplomatically and getting ready for the fentanyl round of negotiations.
Perdue’s arrival comes during a tense trade standoff. Both economies are watching their supply chains like hawks. Chinese manufacturers, according to industry watchers, are slowly moving away from the US market, even as the tariff pause kicks in.
Meanwhile, American companies are stepping up plans to shift production outside China, hedging against more disruptions. The Geneva talks were a rare moment of calm.
That’s where the US and China released a joint statement agreeing to roll back a large chunk of tariffs. The last time both sides signed something like that was November 2023, and that one was just about climate.
Tensions grow again as chip warnings and tech control threats return
On the same Thursday that Ma and Landau spoke, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng was in talks with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon. He told Dimon that China and the US had made “substantial progress” in their trade discussions. He also said Beijing wants to open up its markets more to American firms. But no one gave any details, and no one confirmed what that “progress” really means.
Dimon, for his part, apparently told Chinese officials that the US government doesn’t want to decouple from China. That’s what Yuyuantantian, a CCTV-linked social media account, claimed. Whether that’s the actual US position is less clear. Because just days before, the American government told domestic companies to stop using Chinese AI chips, especially those made by Huawei Technologies.
That move didn’t go unnoticed in Beijing. China’s Ministry of Commerce called the action “unilateral bullying” and said it would respond to protect its national interests. Nomura analysts weren’t shocked. They said in a note Friday that “strategic decoupling remains inevitable.” They expect Trump’s administration to drop more narrow, sector-specific tariffs and block tech access. China, in turn, might limit rare earth exports — essential materials in everything from EVs to weapons systems.
So while diplomats are still picking up the phone, both governments are getting their punches in on the side. Trade talks are active. Calls are ongoing. But the tech fight hasn’t cooled off, and no one’s pretending it has.
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