(Updates April 28 story ahead of Sino-U.S. trade talks)

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Vice Premier He Lifeng to meet U.S. officials on Saturday

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He is longtime confidant of Xi Jinping

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He initially underwhelmed foreign investors, but has

gained

confidence and experience

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He described as ideological proponent of state-led growth

By Laurie Chen and Michael Martina

BEIJING/WASHINGTON, May 7 (Reuters) - Opposite U.S.

officials for talks on Saturday aimed at breaking a trade

deadlock between the world's top two economies will be He

Lifeng, a longtime confidant of Chinese President Xi Jinping who

has slowly cultivated a reputation as a key fixer.

The vice premier will meet in Switzerland with U.S. Treasury

Secretary Scott Bessent and chief trade negotiator Jamieson

Greer after weeks of escalating tensions that have seen both

countries ramp up trade duties upwards of 100%.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged Xi to call

him about a potential trade deal, but any off-ramp to the

tensions had been expected to run through He, who oversees

U.S.-China economic and trade affairs.

Reuters interviewed 13 foreign investors and diplomats who

met with He over the past year. They described the 70-year-old's

evolution from a stiff Communist Party apparatchik with

non-existent English and a reluctance to stray from prepared

remarks into a more confident figure who has impressed them with

his ability to get things done.

When the leaders of some of the world's largest companies

flocked to Beijing for a business forum last month, many were

left impressed by He, according to a U.S. business person

briefed on the encounters.

Most of the people spoke on condition of anonymity to

discuss confidential interactions with He, who also wields vast

regulatory oversight over China's sprawling financial sector.

The vice premier has held at least 60 meetings with

foreigners in the past year, according to Reuters' review of his

public engagements. That marks a steady increase from 45 between

March 2023, when he took office as vice premier, and March 2024.

China's State Council did not respond to a faxed request for

comment on the talks.

DEFENDER OF STATUS QUO?

But despite the vice premier's increasing comfort with

engaging with Western executives, many of the businesspeople

interviewed by Reuters said that He was not a policy innovator.

The vice premier's newly improved reputation with American

executives was likely enhanced because Chinese leaders appeared

especially predictable and confident in the wake of chaos in the

U.S., said the businessperson briefed about last month's

meetings.

He last served as head of China's key macroeconomic planning

agency, where he was responsible for formulating industrial

policy, and has repeatedly defended Beijing's export-led growth

strategy in meetings with foreigners.

A U.S. business person told Reuters that He, who has

supported boosting manufacturing over domestic consumption,

serves as Xi's "chief lieutenant for building a trillion-dollar

surplus."

He at other meanings had also repeatedly brushed off

complaints about Chinese overcapacity, which are shared by many

countries that Beijing is now courting as it seeks export

pressure valves and new cooperation avenues, three people told

Reuters.

"On the daily level, He will be defending China's trade

surplus," said Wen-Ti Sung, a senior fellow at the Atlantic

Council's Global China Hub. "It's hard to see He softening down

on the trade surplus, an issue pivotal to China's job creation."

The vice premier has been on the frontline of China's recent

outreach to developed markets like Japan and the European Union,

also hit by Trump's tariff barrage.

After Switzerland, He will travel to France for a high-level

economic dialogue.

UNDERWHELMING START

Before He took on his current role, the economic portfolio

was run by Liu He, a Harvard-educated economist with fluent

English who negotiated a trade agreement with the United States

during the first Trump administration.

While the vice premier has a PhD in economics from Xiamen

University, his domestic-focused background meant he has had a

learning curve in serving as China's economic frontman to the

world.

Some American executives were underwhelmed by He after the

official briefed them last July on the outcome of a key economic

policy meeting, according to one person present.

The person said the vice premier, who under party

conventions should retire in 2027, didn't look particularly

vigorous at the briefing, where he was flanked by dozens of

aides.

Predecessors of He like Liu and Wang Qishan, by contrast,

were known among foreign interlocutors for their eloquence and

relatively informal demeanour.

The vice premier also downplayed concerns about Beijing's

rare earth export controls and the safety of Japanese nationals

in China following major stabbing events after they were raised

by a Japanese business delegation in February.

The businessperson briefed on He's March meetings described

past discussions with the vice premier as akin to "talking to

ChatGPT." But he said the Chinese official had more recently

started to communicate in a way that appealed more to Western

executives.

The person, who has met He multiple times, was also

impressed by the vice premier's ability to explain Beijing's

position on economic policy and deliver on promises for

assistance in a way officials who aren't close to Xi haven't

been able to. The source did not provide specifics.

Another foreign official who met He this year also said the

vice premier was very aware of China's economic problems - which

include deflationary pressures and an ageing population, on top

of the tariffs and real-estate crisis - and provided a

sophisticated analysis of the issues.

He also appeared very confident about the prospects of the

homegrown AI startup Deepseek, the official said.

'TYPICAL BUREAUCRAT' AND DEMOLISHER

He rose through the local bureaucracy in his native Fujian

province, where Xi built his power base as a local official in

the 1990s and early 2000s. He became a trusted lieutenant of Xi

around that time and attended the future leader's wedding,

Reuters previously reported.

The official was transferred to the industrial port city of

Tianjin in 2009, where he was nicknamed "He the Demolisher" by

locals for embarking on a massive urban renewal campaign and

expensive infrastructure projects that gave the city a shiny

facade but also drove it deeper into debt.

Alfred Wu, a China expert at National University of

Singapore, said that He focused heavily on boosting economic

growth and was particularly "big on real estate and urban

redevelopment, like many local officials at the time.

Wu, who met He while working as a journalist in Fujian,

described the official as a "typical local bureaucrat and a very

typical protégé of Xi Jinping."

His "number one priority is implementing Xi's directives,

which puts him in more of a subordinate position," he added.