The US wants Chinese money back in - just not all of it, and not all at once.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC from Beijing that the US and China are talking about a "Board of Investment" to clear Chinese deals in non-sensitive sectors before they ever hit the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The pitch landed the same day President Trump met Xi Jinping in Beijing, the first US presidential visit to China since 2017.
CFIUS - which Bessent chairs - is the federal review panel that can block foreign acquisitions of US assets. The new board would "pre-game" deals before they trigger that review.
"There are plenty of things that the Chinese could invest in," Bessent said on CNBC. "What we want to do is make sure that these investments don't get referred to CFIUS."
The board would decide up front what counts as non-sensitive, and anything strategic would still get the full review.
Why? Faster approvals could mean billions in Chinese capital flowing into US warehouses, infrastructure, and consumer-facing companies without the long CFIUS wait.
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Bessent said one idea on the table is removing tariffs on about $30 billion of trade in non-critical areas, using fireworks as an example.
"There are many things that they want to buy from us," he added, pointing to Chinese interest in more US energy.
Asked about a report that the Commerce Department had cleared 10 Chinese firms to buy Nvidia's H200 AI chips, Bessent said it was news to him and noted the issue sits with Commerce.
He also said he didn't know where talk of $1 trillion in Chinese investment had come from.
The board idea builds on the trade-war truce Trump and Xi struck in October in South Korea, with both sides hinting at bigger deals including a possible large Boeing order.
Asked about Taiwan, Bessent said the topic would come up at the summit and said Trump understands how sensitive it is.
A "Board of Investment" sounds technical, but the practical effect would be Chinese deals moving faster through the US system in any sector both governments agree isn't strategic.
Whether it actually gets built depends on what comes out of the Trump-Xi meetings - and the agreement they ship will set the next few years of US-China economic ties.
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