By Laurie Chen
BEIJING (Reuters) -A group of U.S. lawmakers on a rare visit to Beijing raised a deal with top Chinese leaders which would see China commit to buy more Boeing jets, Adam Smith, a U.S. Democratic Representative, told a press conference on Tuesday.
U.S. Ambassador to China David Purdue said he thought the negotiations had entered their last days or weeks, adding that the deal is “very important to the president.”
Boeing is in talks to sell as many as 500 jets to China, Bloomberg reported last month. That would represent a major breakthrough for the company in the world’s second-largest aviation market, where orders have stalled amid U.S.-China trade tensions.
“It’s been a while since Boeing airplanes have been sold here in China. We’d like to get that deal done,” said Smith, who is leading the bipartisan delegation, when asked about the deal. “It’s a good company, good product, hope you get back to selling airplanes in China.”
The visit, which began Sunday, marks the first House of Representatives delegation to China since 2019, after which U.S.-China relations deteriorated during the coronavirus pandemic.
It follows a Friday conversation between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, as the world’s two largest economies look to improve relations beyond their current tariff truce.
Boeing is one of the largest U.S. exporters and historically sent around a quarter of its planes to China, though it has not secured a major Chinese purchase since Trump’s first term in office.
Purdue said he had visited Boeing’s plant in Tianjin last week, a city 150 km (95 miles) southeast of the Chinese capital.
The lawmakers met China’s second-ranking official Li Qiang on Sunday, and with economy tsar He Lifeng and Defence Minister Dong Jun on Monday, raising the need for more military dialogue.
“I think when you’re getting up into the hundreds close to a thousand nuclear weapons, it’s time to start having a conversation about it to make sure we understand each other and we don’t stumble into any sort of conflict,” Smith told the press conference at the U.S. embassy in Beijing.
Adam Smith is the current top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, which oversees the U.S. Defense Department and armed forces.
While Trump has been particularly vocal about his tariff policy – singling China out for duties in excess of 100% earlier this year before walking the bulk of them back – U.S. restrictions over semiconductor chips, Chinese activities in the South China Sea, and matters related to Taiwan, and TikTok’s ownership also cloud the relationship.
Another member of the delegation, Democratic Representative Ro Khanna, whose jurisdiction covers Silicon Valley, has been vocal on tech and economic competition with China.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen; Writing by Joe Cash; Editing by Jamie Freed and Lincoln Feast.)
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