Bessent will meet Chinese officials in Spain for trade and TikTok talks

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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will travel to Madrid this weekend for negotiations with his Chinese counterparts over tariffs and national security issues related to the ownership of social media platform TikTok.

Bessent is slated to meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Madrid to discuss national security and economic issues, a Treasury news release states.

This will be the fourth round of discussions between U.S. and Chinese counterparts after meetings in London, Geneva and Stockholm. The two governments have agreed to several 90-day pauses on a series of increasing reciprocal tariffs, staving off an all-out trade war.

During the last round of discussions in Stockholm, Bessent described his talks with the Chinese as “ very fulsome."

“We just need to de-risk with certain, strategic industries, whether it’s the rare earths, semiconductors, medicines, and we talked about what we could do together to get into balance within the relationship,” Bessent said at the time.

China remains one of the biggest challenges for the Trump administration after it has struck deals over elevated tariff rates with other key trading partners, such as Britain, Japan and the European Union.

The U.S. and China delegations are also expected to continue discussions about ownership of TikTok.

Congress approved a U.S. ban on the popular video-sharing platform unless its parent company, ByteDance, sold its controlling stake. President Donald Trump said last month that he will keep extending the sale deadline until there’s a buyer.

But Trump has so far extended the deadline three times during his second term — with the next deadline coming up Wednesday.

A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late February and early March found that about one-third of Americans said they supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Roughly one-third said they would oppose a ban, and a similar percentage said they weren’t sure.

The Treasury Department also says Bessent will meet Spanish government counterparts to discuss the relationship between Spain and the United States.

After his Spain trip, Bessent is expected to travel to the U.K. to join Trump for his official state visit with Britain’s King Charles at Windsor Castle.