March 29, 2025 (EIRNS)—Senator Steve Daines of Montana, a Republican and strong supporter of President Donald Trump, visited Beijing over March 20-23, a trip his Senate office told Associated Press had been “closely” coordinated with the White House. He met with at least three high-level Chinese officials: Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu, Vice Prime Minister He Lifeng, and on his last day, on the sidelines of the China Development Forum, with Prime Minister Li Qiang.
The Senator knows China well, having lived there in the 1990s when he was a Procter & Gamble executive, and served as an emissary to China for Trump in his first administration. Daines told Vice Prime Minister He Lifeng that he has “always believed in having constructive dialogue and that has been the nature of all my visits to China over the course of many years.”
A potential Trump-Xi summit was discussed. Daines’ office reported after his meeting with Vice Premier He Lifeng, that Senator Daines “expressed hope that further high-level talks between the United States and China will take place in the near future.” On the last day of his trip, Daines told Bloomberg that “there’s a desire from both sides to have the high-level meeting. There just isn’t a date yet.” Bloomberg added (but gave no quotes) that Daines had said “he hopes a leadership meeting will take place before the end of the year.”
