According to reports from many mainstream Western media, this round of talks officially began at Lancaster House after 1 p.m. local time on Monday in London, and ended just after 8 p.m. that evening, and will continue at 10 a.m. tomorrow.
Lancaster House was built in 1825 and was originally named Stafford House. It was built in the 1820s by the Marquis of Stafford, an influential British nobleman in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is adjacent to Buckingham Palace. It was purchased by the British government in 1912 and renamed to its current name. It is currently managed by the British Foreign Office and is used to host important foreign affairs activities. The palace adopts the neoclassical architectural style and the interior decoration is extremely luxurious. It is known as "one of the most gorgeous interiors in London". Some scenes of the popular British TV series "Downton Abbey" were also filmed here.
The U.S. Treasury Department sent a group photo before the talks to the White House reporters covering the negotiations. It can be seen that there were three people on the U.S. side (Treasury Secretary Benson, Commerce Secretary Lutnick, and Trade Representative Greer), and three people on the Chinese side (Vice Premier He Lifeng, Minister Wang Wentao, and Vice Minister Li Chenggang).
From what the media disclosed, the negotiations were very hard, and there was not even a formal dinner time. Bloomberg's reporter on the scene mentioned that the negotiation team ordered takeout from the London restaurant Ottolenghi and brought it directly into the venue in food bags. Both sides should have talked while eating or hurriedly dealt with a few bites and then continued to work.
Regarding the specific situation and results of the negotiations, the Chinese side has not released any news, and the U.S. side has also disclosed very little. Benson briefly described the talks as a "good meeting", and Commerce Secretary Lutnick said the discussion was "fruitful".
Trump also had an itinerary that afternoon, and held a "Trump Savings Account" roundtable meeting with CEOs of Dell, Goldman Sachs, Uber and other companies. When asked by reporters how the talks between China and the United States went, Trump replied: "Our negotiations with China are going well. China is not easy to deal with...but I received good news." When asked whether export controls could be lifted, he replied to reporters, "We're going to see," and then said, "China has been taking advantage of the United States for many years" and "We hope to open up the Chinese market," etc.
The Wall Street Journal and other media quoted "informed sources" as saying that Trump gave certain negotiating authorizations before the US delegation left, allowing flexibility on some issues - for example, the US side could adjust potential export controls on EDA design software, aircraft engine parts, ethane and nuclear energy equipment as appropriate.
On the morning before the talks began, CNBC connected with Hassett, director of the White House Economic Council, for an interview. He revealed for the first time that the US government is considering lifting some export controls in exchange for further relaxation of rare earth export controls by China. Hassett said that this round of talks "will not be long, but it will be a big, strong handshake"; if China allows large-scale exports of rare earths, "any export controls from the US will be eased immediately", and then the two sides will continue to deal with some "smaller matters". Hassett also emphasized that the relaxation of controls he mentioned does not refer to Nvidia's top chips, but more to other types of semiconductors that are also very important to China. CNBC further asked: So the control on H20 will not be relaxed, right? Hassett said: "Yes, that would be a new thing."
While Hassett was talking about Nvidia chips, Huang Renxun was attending the "Tech Week" in London and had a half-hour conversation with British Prime Minister Starmer. During the conversation, he praised the UK as the third AI pole after China and the United States, with advantages in innovation vitality, technical talents and technology investment, but computing infrastructure is a shortcoming. Huang Renxun emphasized that AI will be an infrastructure like electricity in the future. The UK needs computing infrastructure to promote the development of AI, and Nvidia can help.
CNBC and Hassett's interview transcript:
CNBC: I think the news Scott gave us was not very good - that is, the negotiations were stalled and we didn't make much progress. Then we heard President Trump say, "President Xi is tough, but I want to talk to him." They talked on the phone, and it seemed that some progress had been made on the rare earth and critical mineral issues we just mentioned. Is this the situation we are in now? Does this mean real progress in reaching an agreement?
Kevin Hassett: President Trump and President Xi spoke on the phone for over an hour, and we talked about a lot of things, including what we agreed to in Geneva: we would reduce tariffs on Chinese goods, and they agreed to release the magnets and rare earth resources that we need for our economy. They did start releasing those resources, but it was much slower than some companies thought was "ideal." We reached out to the Chinese again and had another call. The traditional president basically said, "We want to meet again, we're going to meet in a few days, and I want to confirm with a handshake that you are really committed to releasing these resources." So the purpose of today's meeting was to make sure that the Chinese were serious - a literal handshake confirmation, done by our three top trade negotiators, Scott, Howard and Jamieson, to get this thing over with.
CNBC: Do you expect this to be fruitful?
HASSET: Yes, I expect it to be a brief but strong meeting, a strong handshake, and a full commitment.
CNBC: Is that what we expect? And then we can go back to the table and deal with other issues? Or is this the main issue?
HASSET: Yes, it is indeed a very key sticking point. As you know, China controls about 90% of the supply of rare earths and magnets. If they delay exports because of some of the licensing mechanisms that they have set up, then it could disrupt the production of some American companies that rely on these raw materials. There are quite a lot of these companies, such as a lot of manufacturing companies. President Trump took this very seriously and called President Xi and said, "We have to speed up the export of these things," and President Xi agreed.
CNBC: Kevin, the Chinese view is that the U.S. export controls on semiconductors have also caused great trouble for Chinese companies that rely on these technologies. Will this be some kind of "quid pro quo": China restores rare earth supplies, and the U.S. relaxes semiconductor export controls?
Hassett: Yes, that's right. Our expectation is that after the handshake is completed, all U.S. export controls will be relaxed immediately, and China will release rare earth resources on a large scale. Then we can go back to the negotiating table and deal with some smaller issues.
CNBC: But I remember that those export controls were based on national security considerations - we were worried about their use for military purposes. Is there any way to ensure that they are not abused...
Hassett: It depends on the specific situation. For example, the top-of-the-line chips like Nvidia - I'm not talking about that kind of product. I'm talking more about other types of semiconductors, which are also very important to China.
CNBC: So it doesn't include the H20 kind?
Hassett: Yeah, that would be another thing.
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