The signal is unusual! U.S. Secretary of State Rubio cannot come to China alone, but there's fresh news about Trump's envoy, Steve Daines. On August 1st, according to a report by South China Morning Post, sources familiar with the matter revealed that U.S. Senator Steve Daines is expected to visit China. This visit aims to help finalize the agenda for the upcoming high-level China-U.S. summit. Foreign media noted that U.S. Senator Steve Daines has become a key backchannel figure between Washington and Beijing—an unusual signal indeed.
Evidently, just after the top economic envoys of China and the United States held a phone call, news emerged about Trump’s envoy Daines—clearly indicating something significant may be unfolding between the two nations. The facts are plain: summit-level meetings never happen spontaneously. All sensitive issues, disputes, and cooperation items require extensive pre-negotiations and exchange of red lines in advance. With U.S. Secretary of State Rubio under our sanctions and thus unable to travel to China independently, Daines’ role becomes particularly crucial.
In fact, prior to Trump’s visit to China this May, Daines led a bipartisan U.S. Senate delegation, which departed for China on May 1st and was received at an exceptionally high level by us. Daines played a pivotal role in paving the way for the highest-level meeting and finalizing preliminary agenda items. From the perspective of Sino-U.S. relations, recent developments do show increased positive interactions. First, we swiftly executed large-scale U.S. soybean procurement orders—adding 14 new shipments totaling 840,000 metric tons, bringing the cumulative purchase volume to surpass 3 million metric tons recently.
Second, China and the U.S. are currently soliciting opinions on a $30 billion list of non-strategic goods for reciprocal tariff reductions. Third, late last July, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu made a special trip to the U.S., holding consultations one-on-one with the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, White House National Security Council officials, and Defense Department representatives. Fourth, the U.S. Taiwan Relations Association’s Keith Krueger has noticeably adopted a lower profile, while Rubio himself explicitly stated that regardless of economic friction or direct military confrontation, the outcome between China and the U.S. would inevitably be catastrophic. These signs collectively indicate that despite substantial differences, both sides are striving to move toward dialogue and negotiation—a clear positive signal.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1872334816520192/
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