“This is good news for Beijing,” said John Gong, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing who has worked as a consultant for China’s Commerce Ministry. “Wall Street has to have a seat in the Trump administration, and it got the most important one.”
US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick of Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary may give Beijing room to negotiate with the US over their trade tensions, in part due to his moderate stance on tariffs.
Bessent, who runs macro hedge fund Key Square Group and was nominated on Friday, has described Trump’s threats of steep levies on Chinese imports as a “maximalist negotiating position”. He has urged a phased approach to implementation, calling for tariffs to be “layered in gradually” in an interview with CNBC earlier this month.
