China’s top trade negotiator removed from WTO post

BEIJING - China has formalised the new role of top trade negotiator Li Chenggang, dropping him from the post of permanent representative to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), official news agency Xinhua said on Oct 20.

The news comes after tension between the world’s two biggest economies flared, after the US added more foreign companies under its sanctions and China set

wide-ranging export curbs on rare earths

and critical materials in response.

The announcement, following Mr Li’s April appointment to the job of lead international trade negotiator, was part of a routine list of recent ambassadorial changes approved by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

China’s current representative to the WTO is Ms Li Yongjie, who presented her credentials on Sept 29, the trade body said on its Weibo social media account.

Beijing sometimes makes no formal announcement when an official takes up a new role.

As former WTO envoy and assistant minister of commerce, Mr Li Chenggang, 58, played a key role in four successive rounds of US-China trade talks as the two seek to avert a bruising trade war after imposing tariffs of more than 100 per cent on each other in April.

Last week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took the unusual step of singling Mr Li out by name,

describing him as “unhinged”

at a public event.

“Perhaps the vice-minister who showed up here with very incendiary language on Aug 28 has gone rogue,” Mr Bessent added at a separate press conference on Oct 15 after the “unhinged” remark.

“This individual was very disrespectful.”

Mr Li’s August visit to Washington ruffled feathers in the Trump administration, as he arrived uninvited, demanded senior-level meetings, “restated China’s false narratives and lectured the Americans”, said a source briefed on the matter who sought anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Xi, Trump summit expected

Mr Bessent has since sought to scale down tension before an expected summit of US President Donald Trump and Mr Xi later in October on the sidelines of an Apec summit in South Korea.

In a video call on Oct 17 with China’s economic czar He Lifeng, both sides had “frank and detailed discussions” on US-China trade, Mr Bessent wrote on X.

Both men will meet next week in Malaysia to try to forestall an escalation of US tariffs on Chinese goods, Mr Bessent added.

Mr Li’s unexpected appointment in April, replacing veteran trade negotiator Wang Shouwen, came days after Beijing launched tariffs of 125 per cent against Washington in its hardline stance early in the trade war.

China’s ambassador to the WTO for more than four years, Mr Li had previously held several key jobs in the Commerce Ministry, including in departments overseeing treaties and law and fair trade. A graduate of the elite Peking University and Germany’s Hamburg University, Mr Li has extensive knowledge of WTO laws. REUTERS