Steve Daines

Premier Li Qiang and top diplomat Wang Yi call for stability in China-US ties during meetings with Senator Steve Daines

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Published: 6:05pm, 7 May 2026Updated: 10:56pm, 7 May 2026

China hoped to maintain “stable and predictable” trade ties with the United States, Premier Li Qiang told visiting US Senator Steve Daines on Thursday, a week ahead of a highly anticipated presidential summit between the two countries.

Meeting Daines at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Li called for both sides to engage in more dialogue rather than confrontation, pursue more mutually beneficial cooperation rather than zero-sum games, and maintain stable economic and trade ties.

“It serves the fundamental interests of both countries,” he noted.

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Daines, a Republican from Montana and close Trump ally, is leading a five-member delegation of US senators visiting Shanghai and Beijing ahead of US President Donald Trump’s rescheduled trip to China next week.

If held on May 14 and 15 as planned, the summit with President Xi Jinping in Beijing would mark the first visit to China by a US president in more than eight years, and Trump’s first foreign trip since the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28.

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The Taiwan question was a core interest for Beijing and the first red line that must not be crossed in Sino-US relations, Li told the visiting American lawmakers.

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