<figure id="attachment_3035626" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3035626" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-3035626" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/057165b6-li-chenggang-reuters-160425.webp" alt="Li Chenggang Reuters 160425" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3035626" class="wp-caption-text">Li Chenggang has held several key jobs in China&#8217;s commerce ministry. (Reuters pic)</figcaption></figure>
BEIJING: China appointed as its new trade negotiator today a former representative to the World Trade Organization who replaces vice-commerce minister Wang Shouwen, amid an escalating tariff war with the US.
Li Chenggang, 58, a former assistant commerce minister during the first administration of US President Donald Trump, takes over from Wang, 59, the human resources and social security ministry said in a statement.
The change comes as Beijing pursues a hardline stance in an intensifying trade war with Washington triggered by Trump&#8217;s hefty tariffs on items imported from China.
Li, who has held several key jobs in the commerce ministry, such as in departments overseeing treaties and law and fair trade, has an academic background in the elite Peking University and Germany&#8217;s Hamburg University.
He replaces Wang, a veteran commerce official and top trade negotiator since 2022.
In the lead-up to the US tariff escalation, Wang welcomed foreign executives in Beijing, some from PepsiCo, Visa, P&amp;G, Rio Tinto and Vale, reassuring them of China&#8217;s economic prospects.
The step came after official data showed foreign direct investment plummeted 27.1% in local currency terms in 2024 on the year, for its largest such drop since the 2008 global financial crisis.

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