Ahead of President Trump’s visit to Beijing, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is considering putting a tricky trade-off on the agenda for coming talks with his Chinese counterpart: reducing China’s oil purchases from U.S. adversaries like Russia.
In private consultations held in recent days with former U.S. officials, business executives and policy analysts, Bessent described a continuing effort to try to get China to instead buy American oil-and-gas products, said people familiar with the meetings. Bessent is thinking about raising the energy issue, the people said, in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, in Paris in mid-March. They are planning to firm up a framework for the April summit between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Reducing Russian oil purchases would be a big ask for China, which gets crude from its strategic ally at a significant discount. American oil would be much more expensive, and shutting out Russian crude would undermine Beijing’s relationship with the Kremlin and undercut Moscow’s position in the Ukraine war.
In addition, the people said, Bessent is also considering asking China to reduce purchases of Iranian oil. While most of Iranian oil is currently offline following the U.S.-Israeli strikes, Washington wants Beijing to reduce its long-term dependence on Iranian barrels should they resume.
Xi is also expected to present a significant demand of his own when he meets Trump, potentially pressing the American leader to adopt a more proactive U.S. stance against Taiwanese independence in a bid to undermine confidence in the self-governing democracy that Beijing views as part of its territory.
Bessent also indicated in those private meetings, the people said, that Washington is seeking expanded Chinese purchases of American soybeans and Boeing jets, as well as a relaxation of Beijing’s export controls on rare-earth elements, which are essential to the manufacturing of a range of electronics.
China, which dominates the flow of rare earths, choked them off last year in response to Trump’s imposition of new tariffs. U.S. manufacturers that rely on them to make everything from cars to jet fighters suffered. Senior U.S. officials said China’s adherence to a trade truce Beijing and Washington struck late last year in South Korea—where China agreed to a one-year suspension of its global export controls on the critical minerals—is top of mind for the U.S. heading into the next round of talks.
Beijing is expected to push for a reduction in tariffs and a loosening of U.S. export restrictions on high-tech components, particularly chip-making equipment and AI-related gear.
The senior U.S. officials said Bessent’s discussions leading up to the next round of talks with China have included sessions with former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Rob Spalding—an architect of the first Trump administration’s National Security Strategy—and executives at Blackstone, as well as policy analysts at the Asia Society and Hoover Institution.
The outreach reflects an attempt to move beyond friction over tariffs and establish a more predictable equilibrium between the world’s two largest economies. A senior administration official described Bessent as optimistic about the relationship with Beijing going into Trump’s summit with Xi.
Trump has signaled he wants China to buy more American oil and gas, specifically highlighting a potential large-scale transaction for Alaskan energy as part of the trade truce reached in late 2025. Washington is concerned broadly about China’s continued purchasing of Russian oil, which provides a critical financial lifeline to Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
China has long been reliant on cheap energy from U.S. adversaries. As of early 2026, imports from Russia and Iran, combined with disrupted supply from Venezuela, accounted for more than a third of China’s total oil imports.
Some American corporate leaders have expressed concern that the U.S. isn’t further along with identifying concrete goals to be achieved at the summit. The U.S. also hasn’t yet prepared a commercial delegation to attend the meeting with Trump, as happened in his first term, though Trump could still direct one to be put together.
U.S. officials disputed the notion that planning is lagging. A senior U.S. official said the administration is moving deliberatively to ensure talks are substantive.
Bessent has expressed concerns to some of the people he recently met with that the window for a substantive breakthrough with China will narrow if the Beijing summit fails to develop an agreeable plan that can be followed up during the next one or two meetings between the two leaders, the people familiar with the matter said.
A senior U.S. official said the administration sees the April summit as the beginning of discussions, noting that the relationship between the two leaders has put the administration in a position to anticipate as many as four leader-level meetings this year.
The recent U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran have introduced a volatile wild card.
For Xi, the strikes on Iran—following U.S. actions against the Maduro regime in Venezuela—heighten concerns about energy security. While China can technically replace Iranian barrels with Russian or Gulf supply, Beijing is alarmed by price spikes that could damage its already-stressed domestic economy.
“While China feels deeply uncomfortable with recent U.S. actions, they currently see enough value in stabilizing the relationship to continue supporting the president’s visit,” said Kurt Campbell, former deputy secretary of state under President Joe Biden and now chairman of the Asia Group. “However, they may re-evaluate if the current war starts to spin out of control.”
Campbell said Beijing is also “very much on watch” over a recent draft executive order that it views as a pretext for nationalizing U.S. elections based on alleged Chinese interference in the 2020 presidential election.
Beijing is sensitive to Trump’s recent calls for the Iranian people to rise up. And while Trump may view military action as a demonstration of strength, analysts said it may harden Beijing’s alignment with Russia.
Write to Lingling Wei at Lingling.Wei@wsj.com and Gavin Bade at gavin.bade@wsj.com