After lengthy talks with the United States, the Chinese delegation leaves the hotel in Kuala Lumpur.
The meeting was chaired by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Kuala Lumpur - The Chinese group, led by Vice Premier He Lifeng, left their Kuala Lumpur hotel on Saturday after spending several hours in talks with the U.S. delegation, led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Lifeng and his group left the hotel with smiles and greetings to the media shortly before 6:00 p.m. local time (10:00 a.m. GMT), approximately five hours after arriving this morning at the Merdeka Tower 188 skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur around 11:00 a.m. local time (3:00 a.m. GMT), according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua.
The U.S. delegation was led by Bessent and his team, as the White House had indicated this week.
It has not yet been determined whether the trade negotiations, amid growing tensions over mutual technological limitations, will take place today or tomorrow, when US President Donald Trump is expected to arrive in the Malaysian capital to participate in a summit of Southeast Asian leaders.
This new round of talks, established after a recent videoconference between the parties involved, aims to narrow the gap between the world's major powers ahead of the anticipated summit between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on October 30 in South Korea, according to information from Washington.
The recent increase in tensions between the two powers is based on recent restrictions imposed by China on the export of rare earth minerals, a group of metals essential to the technology industry, whose production and processing are controlled by China, as well as new reciprocal port tariffs, among other issues.
In response, the US president warned that he would increase tariffs on goods from China to 100% starting November 1.
This is the fifth meeting between He and Bessent since May, the most recent being held in mid-September in Madrid.
The talks in the Malaysian capital are taking place almost simultaneously with the meeting of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which takes place from Sunday to Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur. Trump is expected to arrive on Sunday to attend the summit and hold bilateral meetings.
They also come before the US and Chinese leaders are scheduled to meet, theoretically on October 30 in Gyeongju, South Korea, as announced by the White House on Thursday, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit of heads of state.