US President Donald Trump sounded an optimistic note at the end of the first day of US-China trade talks in Washington DC.
“We had a very, very good negotiation with China,” Mr. Trump told reporters after the talks wrapped up.
Mr. Trump will meet directly with Vice Premier Liu He at the White House on Friday. Earlier reports suggested the Chinese delegation might leave after the first day of talks. Asian markets followed Wall Street higher after Mr. Trump’s comments.
Thursday’s talks kicked off amid a backdrop of renewed tensions, as the US blacklisted 28 Chinese entities over human rights concerns. They were the first high-level negotiations in more than two months. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer met Mr. Liu and other Chinese officials.
“The Chinese side came with great sincerity, willing to cooperate with the US on the trade balance, market access, and investor protection,” Mr. Liu told the official Xinhua news agency.
Earlier in the week, the US government blacklisted 28 Chinese entities it said were “implicated” in human rights abuses, and imposed additional visa restrictions for Chinese government officials.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington denounced the visa action and said the US accusations on human rights violations were “made-up pretexts” for interfering in China’s affairs. Although many of the blacklisted entities are government security bureaus, the eight companies named include some of China’s leaders in artificial intelligence.