US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday that meetings with his Chinese counterparts this week “advanced our talks”, but stopped short of confirming that US President Donald Trump approved the consensus that Beijing claimed they had reached. “This week’s negotiations in Stockholm have advanced our talks with China, and I believe that we have the makings of a deal that will benefit both of our great nations,” Bessent wrote on X. “Thanks to the powerful bond between @POTUS and President Xi, I am optimistic about the path forward,” he added, without specifying where consensus stands following talks that ended on Tuesday. Since then, the US side has been seen taking its time to confirm any new agreement reached with China, its third-largest trading partner after neighbouring Mexico and Canada. China’s vice-minister of commerce, Li Chenggang, who also took part in the talks, said before leaving Stockholm on Tuesday that a pause on new tariff increases – in place since May – would be extended, but neither Trump nor Bessent has made similar announcements. The Trump administration has instead delivered mixed messages. On Wednesday, Trump said “we are moving along with China”. A day later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “I don’t think so” when asked if a tariff pause was still on the table. Leavitt added during her regular press briefing that the “current trade programme we have going right now with China, as it stands, will decrease America’s trade deficit by [US]$5 billion this year”. Referring the question to Bessent, she added: “So we are moving in the right direction when it comes to China, and Secretary Bessent and [US Trade Representative] Ambassador [Jamieson] Greer continue to be in direct communication with our Chinese counterparts … But I’ll let [Bessent] speak on that, because he’s leading these negotiations.” For now, Trump has left China out of his latest tariff modifications targeting almost all other trading partners, unveiled on the eve of the August 1 expiration of the 90-day suspension. Xin Qiang, an international studies professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, said both sides still had time to work on the specifics of an agreement, calling for patience. “Both Beijing and Washington still have some time to agree on major issues before August 12,” he said, referring to the date the tariff pause will expire.