China unexpectedly anoints new trade negotiator amid US tariff war

China on Wednesday unexpectedly appointed a new trade negotiator key in any talks to resolve the escalating tariff war with the United States, replacing trade tsar Wang Shouwen with its envoy to the World Trade Organization.

Li Chenggang, 58, a former assistant commerce minister during the first administration of US President Donald Trump, takes over from Wang, the human resources and social security ministry said in a statement.

It was unclear if Wang, 59, who assumed the No. 2 role at the commerce ministry in 2022, had taken up a post elsewhere. His name was no longer on the ministry's leadership team, according to the ministry's website as of Wednesday.

The ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the change, which was not explained in the human resources ministry's statement.

Wang was regarded as a tough negotiator and had clashed with US officials in previous meetings, said a source in Beijing's foreign business community.

"He's a bulldog, very intense," said the source, declining to be named.

The shift within the top leadership at the commerce ministry comes as Beijing pursues a hardline stance in an intensifying trade war with Washington triggered by Trump's steep tariffs on items imported from China.

The abrupt change also took place in the middle of President Xi Jinping's tour of Southeast Asia to consolidate economic and trading ties with close neighbours amid the standoff with the US.

Commerce Minister Wang Wentao was among senior officials flanking Xi on his visit to Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia this week.

Alfredo Montufar-Helu, a senior adviser to the Conference Board's China Center said the change was "very abrupt and potentially disruptive" given how quickly trade tensions had escalated and in light of Wang's experience negotiating with the US since the first Trump administration.

"We can only speculate as to why this happened at this precise moment; but it might be that in the view of China's top leadership, given how tensions have continued escalating, they need someone else to break the impasse in which both countries find themselves and finally start negotiating," he said.

Unlike multiple other nations which have responded to Trump's plans for punitive tariffs by seeking bilateral deals with Washington, Beijing has raised its own levies on U.S. goods in response and has not sought talks, which it says can only be conducted on the basis of mutual respect and equality.

Washington said on Tuesday that Trump was open to making a trade deal with China but Beijing should make the first move, insisting that China needed "our money".

'TARIFF SHOCKS'

Li, who was China's ambassador to the WTO for more than four years, previously held several key jobs in the commerce ministry, such as in departments overseeing treaties and law and fair trade. He also has an academic background in the elite Peking University and Germany's Hamburg University.

On March 31, Li attended a Chinese private entrepreneurs forum as a "leader" of the commerce ministry, according to a state media readout of the meeting, one of the first official hints of an impending move to a new role.

"It seems like a routine promotion with nothing abnormal, but now is obviously a sensitive period due to US-China tensions," said Alfred Wu, associate professor at the National University of Singapore.

At a February WTO meeting in Geneva, Li slammed the US for arbitrarily imposing tariffs on its trading partners, including China.

Last week, China filed a new complaint with the WTO expressing "grave concern" over US tariffs, accusing Washington of violating WTO rules.

"Li is a lawyer by training, which positions him better than Wang Shouwen to handle the complex legal issues that are emerging in the current negotiations," said Henry Gao, professor of law at Singapore Management University.

"This change indicates that China is prepared to address legal matters more comprehensively in this round of talks. If anything, this shift demonstrates China's willingness to delve into legal intricacies during negotiations, suggesting a strategic approach to resolving the ongoing trade war."