US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the world cannot accept China running a sustained $1.2 trillion global trade surplus, telling Reuters he will press fellow G20 finance leaders this week to re-examine their terms of trade with Beijing as part of a broader effort to reduce global imbalances.

Bessent argued that stronger trade barriers against Chinese goods would give Beijing a clearer incentive to shift its economy away from export dependence and toward domestic consumption. His framing of the surplus as unacceptable at a G20 gathering he is personally trying to reshape signals that Washington intends to use the forum to build multilateral pressure on Beijing rather than relying solely on bilateral tariffs — a stance that could unsettle currencies and equities across export-heavy Asian economies if other G20 members show any appetite for coordinated trade barriers.

The push revives a long-running theme in G20 diplomacy: the forum's finance ministers have debated global imbalances since the group's first leaders' summits in 2008-2009, when coordinated action on trade and currency distortions was central to the response to the financial crisis, though enforcement of imbalance commitments has historically been weak.

The comments come as Bessent hosts G20 finance leaders in Asheville, North Carolina, in an effort to revive American leadership of the forum after the United States largely stepped back from it during South Africa's presidency last year. China's trade surplus hit a record $1.189 trillion in 2025, and the International Monetary Fund has estimated the yuan remains undervalued by around 21 percent, even as Beijing has shown little appetite for reducing industrial subsidies or rebalancing toward internal demand, according to Reuters reporting on Bessent's broader G20 agenda.

Despite the tougher rhetoric on the surplus, Bessent said the direct US-China trade relationship is improving and confirmed both sides will continue advancing tariff reductions on $30 billion of non-strategic goods each. That confirmation suggests the two countries are not walking back the narrower de-escalation reached earlier this year, and Washington is not abandoning that track alongside its push for broader multilateral pressure — a factor that could limit downside for markets pricing in a stable run into the Trump-Xi summit expected around September 24.

Bessent also said he expects robust discussions with China on artificial intelligence, particularly around preventing powerful AI models from falling into the hands of non-state actors. Those remarks add a security dimension to the economic talks that could feed into how tightly future export controls on advanced chips and technology are drawn.

On scheduling, Bessent said it remains unclear whether he will meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in person ahead of the next Trump-Xi summit, which the US president has previously targeted for around September 24 to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly in New York. That meeting would follow the two leaders' three-day summit in Beijing in May, which produced a framework for economic cooperation but no comprehensive trade agreement. The uncertainty over a pre-summit meeting leaves open the question of how much groundwork gets laid in advance, a factor likely to keep the yuan and Chinese equities sensitive to any fresh headlines out of Asheville this week.

The G20 gathering is also expected to address rising US debt levels, now above $40 trillion, and pressure on countries to sever business ties with Iran. Within that agenda, Bessent's approach to China's surplus is likely to be read as one plank in a wider attempt to reassert US influence over the group's agenda ahead of the autumn summit season.

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Earlier: Bessent says yen slide is contained, backs Ueda ahead of G20 talks