US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urges G20 to address China’s $1.2 trillion trade surplus

Scott Bessent has a message for the world’s largest economies: stop absorbing China’s export machine. The US Treasury Secretary is pushing G20 members to collectively re-evaluate their trade relationships with Beijing, framing China’s $1.2 trillion global trade surplus as a problem too big for any single country to solve alone. The diplomatic offensive comes just ahead of the G20 finance leaders meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, scheduled for August 31 to September 1. Bessent’s argument boils down to a simple premise: the global economy cannot sustain the current imbalance, especially when China’s own domestic economy is showing signs of weakness. The numbers behind the pressure campaign Bessent’s case rests on some striking data points. China’s total exports surged 23.9% year-on-year in July 2026, a pace that contributed to a record global surplus of $1.189 trillion in 2025. That kind of export growth, happening while domestic consumption in China remains sluggish, essentially means Beijing is exporting its way out of economic trouble while other countries absorb the consequences. The US has already been trying to address this on its own through tariffs. According to US Census...