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By Jacob M. Schlesinger and Sarah Krouse 

WASHINGTON -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's top economic adviser huddled Wednesday afternoon with a group of prominent American business executives at the start of his visit to Washington, according to people familiar with the matter.

The meeting between Liu He and business luminaries, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO James Dimon and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. co-chief operating officer David Solomon, came a day before Mr. Liu is slated to see top Trump administration officials amid rising economic tensions between the two countries.

Mr. Liu is scheduled to meet Thursday jointly with three core members of President Donald Trump's economic team: U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Gary Cohn, the director of the White House National Economic Council, according to a White House spokeswoman. Before joining the Trump administration, Mr. Cohn was Mr. Solomon's predecessor at Goldman Sachs.

During his meetings, Mr. Liu is expected to lay out China's plans for further market-opening measures aimed at staving off harsh trade penalties currently being considered by the Trump administration.

Asked if Mr. Liu would meet with President Trump, the White House spokeswoman said, "There is no presidential meeting to confirm at this time."

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington didn't respond to requests for comment on the details of Mr. Liu's visit.

The Trump administration is weighing wide-ranging trade penalties against China, as part of its attempt to curb the $375 billion annual goods trade imbalance between the two nations. On Wednesday, Mr. Lighthizer released the administration's annual trade policy report, which focused heavily on China and said: "Under President Trump's leadership, we will use all available tools to discourage China -- or any country that emulates its policies -- from undermining true market competition."

Mr. Liu, China's director of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs, met for 90 minutes Wednesday with representatives from U.S. companies active in China, and with some of the biggest stakes in maintaining good ties between the two countries.

In addition to Messrs. Dimon and Solomon, the group included BlackRock Inc. Chief Laurence Fink, Marc Allen, president of the international division at Boeing Co., and Evan Greenberg, CEO of insurer Chubb Ltd., who also chairs the U.S.-China Business Council.

Henry Paulson, the former Treasury secretary and CEO of Goldman Sachs also attended. Mr. Paulson now runs an institute devoted to U.S.-China relations.

Myron Brilliant, head of international affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was in the meeting. He declined to discuss the details of the session, but said, "Liu He understands the underlying tensions in the relationship and wants to hear from the administration at the top levels on what the U.S. wants to do." Mr. Brilliant added that Mr. Liu "has his own views on how this can be done, and I think he will lay out some ways for the administration to consider."

As for the Thursday session with the Trump team, the White House spokeswoman said, "We expect a frank exchange of views on the trade and economic relationship, and that talks will focus on the substantive issues."

That meeting won't include Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who had taken the lead on U.S.-China economic relations early in Mr. Trump's term, and co-chaired with Mr. Mnuchin a new Comprehensive Economic Dialogue launched in April when Messrs. Xi and Trump held a summit at Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

That dialogue was put on hold after the first meeting ended with no agreements in July, and Mr. Ross has played a less-prominent role in shaping China economic policy. China has been eager to restart the economic dialogue, but U.S. officials have so far refused, concluding it wasn't successful in extracting the economic concessions Trump officials wanted from China.

Asked why Mr. Ross wouldn't be attending, the White House spokeswoman said: "This meeting is not a part of the Comprehensive Economic Dialogue."

--Emily Glazer and Liz Hoffman in Washington contributed to this article

Write to Jacob M. Schlesinger at jacob.schlesinger@wsj.com and Sarah Krouse at sarah.krouse@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 28, 2018 19:54 ET (00:54 GMT)

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