The 5th round of China-US trade talks underway in Malaysia

A fresh round of China-US trade talks is taking place on the sidelines of the landmark ASEAN summit in Malaysia.

China's trade envoy, Vice Premier He Lifeng, and his delegation touched down in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur late yesterday. They met with their US counterparts this morning to kick off the fifth round of high-stakes negotiations.

Senior trade negotiator Li Chenggang is also participating.

High on the agenda are issues such as technology, rare earths and export controls.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with Fox News that Washington will not rule out an upgrade of its restrictive measures should Beijing refuses to roll back the sweeping rare earth curbs.

This as the US government is reportedly contemplating placing restrictions on exports of products made with American software that could include laptops and airplane engines.

Bessent also said he hopes their trade talks would finish on a positive note and pave the way for a meeting between the two presidents at an APEC summit in South Korea next week.

Departing the White House for his Asia tour, US President Donald Trump said he would bring up the Taiwan issue with President Xi Jinping.

He said: "Well I'll be talking about Taiwan, won't be going there but I'll be talking about it. Won't be too far away. Lot of respect for Taiwan."

In another development, the office of the US Trade Representative opened a probe into China's implementation of the "Phase One" trade agreement clinched during the first Trump term.

According to USTR's release, the agreement required China to increase purchases of American goods and services worth over 200 billion US dollars while opening its markets within two years at least.

Liu Pengyu, spokesman of Chinese Embassy in the US, posted on social media that Beijing has meticulously honoured its agreement obligations.

The diplomat has voiced opposition to what he termed as false allegations and said US's escalated economic pressure against China inflicted serious damage to bilateral and trade ties.