Treasury Secretary Bessent says the US and China should de-risk, not decouple, and start an SI dialogue

The U.S. Treasury published remarks on 11 November from Secretary Scott Bessent at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Gala, marked as prepared for delivery. In the official text, Bessent said President Trump and President Xi agree that the United States and China should build a constructive relationship on the basis of balance and reciprocity, and he stated "firmly and unequivocally" that "as we work toward a more balanced relationship, our objective is to de-risk, not to decouple."

Bessent said the two governments had "chartered two new institutions" in service of those objectives. Under the Board of Trade, he said, the sides "reached consensus to identify more favorable tariff treatment for $30 billion of non-sensitive goods in each direction" and launched a working group on agricultural trade barriers. He also said China "agreed to import at least 25 million metric tons of soybeans and 10 million metric tons of coal from the United States over the next two years." Those figures and characterisations are the secretary's account of the agreements, as published by Treasury.

The Board of Investment, he said, "provides a structured forum for commercially meaningful issues, like market access for American companies and increased predictability for Chinese companies." Bessent argued that the United States has grown too dependent on foreign supply while China has become increasingly reliant on foreign demand, and that "the United States must produce more of what we consume, while China must consume more of what it produces."

On technology, Bessent said that at the president's direction the United States has "begun that important work by establishing a new dialogue with China on SI, designed to guard against shared risks and prevent a misunderstanding between our two systems." He said the two sides also expect to exchange best practices for evaluating and testing advanced models before release and for "keeping human judgment firmly in command of this technology," and that they are establishing a direct channel so either nation can "promptly alert the other to serious incidents involving its SI models."

Bessent also said the two leaders have met often this year, including a trip by President Trump to Beijing in May and a visit by President Xi to Washington in September, and that he would join President Trump in Shenzhen the following week before a further meeting in Miami. The remarks are a policy speech, not an economic data release, and the commitments described above should be read as Treasury's published account of the administration's position.