BEIJING — China’s vice president held meetings with the U.S. vice president-elect and American businessmen, including Elon Musk, in Washington a day before Donald Trump’s inauguration, as the two major countries grapple with ongoing trade and technology tensions.
Han Zheng, who is serving as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s envoy to his inauguration, “discussed a range of topics including fentanyl, balancing trade and regional stability” with JD Vance, according to Trump’s transition team.
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Han emphasized the “many common interests and great space for cooperation” the United States and China share in economic and trade relations despite “disagreements and conflicts,” according to his meeting with Vance released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday.
Trump has threatened to impose tariffs and other measures against China in his second term, while also showing ways the two opposing powers can cooperate on issues such as regional disputes and curbing the export of materials used to produce fentanyl.
In a rare move, Trump last month invited Xi to his inauguration. No head of state has ever made an official visit to the US for an inauguration, according to State Department historical records.
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Although Xi will not attend the event in person, he and Trump held a phone call on Friday where they discussed trade, fentanyl and TikTok. The Chinese social media app restored service to US users on Sunday, after several hours of blackout in response to the state’s ban, which Trump said he would pause with an executive order on Monday.
Han also met with Musk and other top US business executives, including representatives of the US-China Business Council and the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC, according to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Chinese vice president also repeated promises to improve the business environment for foreign companies in China and expressed hope that American companies will continue to increase investment in the country.
Musk, whose company Tesla operates a factory in Shanghai, wrote on his X platform after the meeting that he has long opposed the ban on TikTok “because it is against freedom of speech.”
“That said, the current situation where TikTok is allowed to work in America, but X is not allowed to work in China is not fair,” he wrote. “Something has to change.”
UX is banned in China along with other major US social media and news apps and websites, including YouTube, Google, Facebook and many US media outlets.
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