US Treasury Secretary Scott Becent arrives in Madrid on September 14, 2025 to meet Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Alvarez to continue his discussions on trade, economic and national security issues.
Anna Bertrand | Reuters
Our trade negotiations with China were extended to the second day in Spain, with some agendas of tariff charges, export controls and the imminent deadline for sale of Chinese-owned social media Tiktok.
The first day of negotiations – led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent and trade representative Jamieson Greer, as well as by China’s deputy prime minister and China’s top trade negotiator Li Chengan, the focus was on tiktok, tariffs and the economy, according to US officials.
His latest talk in Madrid marked the fourth round of bilateral meetings in four months. This comes after the two sides suspend most sudden tariffs in May and agreed to revert some of the mutual restrictions. Last month, a trip to Washington by senior Chinese trade negotiator Li Chenggang made little progress.
As the parties headed for the second day of the speech, Bescent said he had made good progress on technical details and was approaching an agreement on Tiktok.
“Our Chinese counterparts are asking very aggressive questions,” he said. “We’ll see if we can get there now. We’re not going to sacrifice national security for social media apps.”
Tensions have been rising recently. Over the weekend, China launched two surveys on the US semiconductor industry, including anti-dumping probes related to certain US-made analog IC chips, and an anti-discrimination investigation into the US movements in China’s chip sector.
The investigation began after the US added 23 Chinese-based companies to its Entity List last Friday.
On Monday, Chinese market regulators said a preliminary investigation was found. nvidia It violates the country’s anti-competitive laws and further investigations will be made into US chip giants.
George Chen, partner in digital practice at Asia Advisory the Asia Group, said Nvidia will become “leverage for both parties” and “leverage for both parties” and “part of Beijing’s negotiation tactics.”
Those trading barbs exchanged prior to the Madrid settlement “doesn’t encouragement,” said Wendy Cutler, former US trade representative in Washington and head of the Institute for Policy Research in the Asia Association in Washington, adding that China is likely to promote “hard bargains” in President Donald Trump’s second order and demand compensation to free these new measures.
Cutler pointed out that Beijing managed to remove certain controls on exporting high-tech equipment to China after tightening the export of critical minerals and magnets to the US.
“With this approach, it is difficult to see how bilateral economic relations improve.
Separately, China’s Commerce Ministry has pushed back the statement in a statement opposed to Trump’s demands on the European Union to impose up to 100% secondary tariffs on Russia’s oil purchases.
As this was a “classic act of unilateral bullying and economic coercion,” and “a “serious violation of consensus” during the call between Trump and XI earlier this year, a spokesman for the statement vowed to declare “necessary measures” to defend Beijing’s legitimate interests.
Authorities are also expected to discuss details of a potential meeting with Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping later this year. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that Beijing had tried to mediate Trump’s visit to China for the past two months.
The chances of a potential Xi-Trump conference will depend on the fateful outcome of Madrid’s story, particularly Tiktok’s fate, and Asian group Chen warned that temperatures could rise further if Washington finds “disrespectful” to try to manage his perception of relations with the US at home.
Beijing headquarters faces a Wednesday deadline for signing a deal to continue operations with Trump in the US, and this year Beijing and Washington extended a similar deadline in sought to manage recommended algorithms for the app.
China, which has to approve the sale, has put the technology on its export control list and so far has shown little indication of its willingness to allow such a transfer to American owners.
Trump told reporters later Sunday that the talks were “going well,” and that Tiktok’s fate would depend on Beijing’s actions.
As Trump is a useful bargain to beat young American voters, Beijing said, “We are happy to meet Trump’s terms regarding Tiktok if we need to cut US tariffs by more than 10%.”
– CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to the report.
