Sen. Daines says progress is made in US relationship with China

WASHINGTON — Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) and Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) traveled to Beijing for conversations regarding pulse crops, potatoes, apples and a deal with Boeing ahead of President Trump's arrival to meet with President Xi.

Senator Daines sat down with NonStop Local on Thursday to give his take on the trip so far. The senator has extensive experience in China, having been instrumental in Procter & Gamble’s Chinese division before running for office.

"I use that experience now to help promote our American agenda as we were negotiating with the Chinese," Daines said. "It was remarkable. I met with the premier last week. In fact, at that same great hall where we've seen all the images of President Trump and President Xi Jinping, that's exactly where I was last Thursday."

The delegation met with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi for discussions focused on expanding market access for American products. That is expected to also be a focal point of President Trump's visit.

“The bottom line is, I think we're going to see some really nice deals come out for—I call it the three Bs—Boeing, beef and beans,” Daines said.

Boeing operates a facility in Helena, Montana and has its headquarters in Everett, Washington. CEO of Boeing Kelly Ortberg is joining Trump for the trip and it’s believed a sizable deal for the Washington-based aerospace company could be made.

Boeing and China are in conversations about around 100 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777x widebody jetliners. Multiple outlets have reported that Trump may potentially announce the formalization of such a deal during this trip.

"There's a lot of reasons why the United States and China have to keep dialogue going forward to have a stable relationship," Daines said. "Clearly, last year was a tough year in the relationship. The tariffs went to 145%. There wasn't much cooperation."

Daines believes this trip is an important part in lowering the temperature between the two powers.

"I'm very proud of what's happened here in the last 24 hours," Daines said. "I think this summit's gone very well. Both leaders are saying the right things. We just have to make sure it turns into action here for next steps."

This is Daines' eighth visit in an official capacity. He made headlines on one of those trips when he took a cooler full of beef to Chinese officials.

"It was Fred Wacker steaks from Miles City that I gave to the premier of China and now we have access to that market," Senator Daines said in February 2025.

Daines said that the face-to-face visits make an impact and help with accountability.

“I told the Chinese officials last week, including the premier, that if you're going to want to keep seeing U.S. senators coming to China and having these discussions, we've got to see action results,” Senator Daines said, “It's got to be not just a bunch of talk. We've got to see results. And I'm seeing that."

Daines also said a deal on opening China up to American beef exports is "all but done."

"That's the second largest beef export market in the world, and the Chinese shut it off last March when we got in that big trade fight. "Senator Daines said. "They were unwilling to open it back up until I went there last week and told them, we've got to have this opened up and [I] wanted to tee that up certainly for President Trump and his team. So they are listening. It's 1.4 billion consumers there in China."

But the senator said these trips have changed over time. The posture from the Chinese is different, which he said could lead to real progress.

"Over the years, oftentimes I'd go into these meetings [and] the Chinese government would be spending most of their time talking at us," Sen. Daines said. "This time, they said, 'we want to hear from you.' So, we were able to lay out our concerns, what we want to see from China. And that was a shift, I think, in tone that I've seen from prior visits.”

On the heels of that and with Trump's arrival, we now watch for details of these deals to potentially be released and what they could mean for American producers.

"I had some text messages last night directly from Ambassador Perdue, who's on the ground there for the United States," Senator Daines said. "Things are going very well. And there's a spirit of cooperation. And that's a good thing. Look, the relationship is far from perfect, but we're in a lot better place now than we were certainly a year ago."