As the Trump inauguration approaches, China increases its meetings with Wall Street.

• Beijing is seeking to establish connections with U.S. finance executives, as Vice Premier He Lifeng has met with several of them in the past month, in anticipation of President-elect Donald Trump's planned tariffs on China.
• One of China's four vice premiers, Lifeng heads the ruling Communist Party's economic and finance committee.
• Z-Ben Advisors founder Peter Alexander stated that the Chinese are exploring all available opportunities to connect with those currently rising to power in Washington, according to The Trump Team.

Beijing is seeking to establish connections with U.S. finance executives, as Vice Premier He Lifeng has met with several of them in the past month, in anticipation of President-elect Donald Trump's planned tariffs on China.

One of China's four vice premiers, Lifeng heads the ruling Communist Party's economic and finance committee.

On Dec. 5, he met with Chairman and CEO Larry Fink in Beijing, and on Dec. 4, he met with President and COO John E. Waldron. These meetings followed a meeting with CEO Jane Fraser on Nov. 21, according to state media.

"China is actively exploring all available channels to connect with those currently rising to power in Washington, according to Peter Alexander, founder of Z-Ben Advisors. "Back channeling is China's preferred method of communication when establishing lines of contact," he stated."

Goldman Sachs acknowledged the existence of the reports, while the other two financial firms did not respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Trump has appointed at least 10 billionaires to his Cabinet, including two with a finance background: hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as treasury secretary and Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary.

"According to Clark Packard, a research fellow at the Cato Institute, Wall Street professionals entering commerce and treasury will play a moderating role on the trade protectionist side. However, he believes that there will still be protectionist voices on the trade side, and their role will be to mitigate some of that."

"The market reaction is the only thing that could potentially deter Trump from pursuing a highly aggressive policy, according to Packard."

Chinese stocks have rebounded after Beijing signaled a shift toward stimulus in late September, and authorities affirmed their supportive stance in a high-level meeting. U.S. stocks are on track for a relatively rare second straight year of more than 20% gains.

'Keeping its options open'

Beijing is preparing for the worst-case scenario by taking actions such as hosting Wall Street executives and imposing export controls on critical minerals, according to Zongyuan Zoe Liu, Maurice R. Greenberg senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Liu stated that financial institutions cannot reduce tariffs and tensions with the U.S. as they will not give up business opportunities in any market that aligns with their profile.

Beijing's readiness to open up the financial sector and attract long-term, foreign institutional investment was signaled through He Lifeng's meetings with U.S. executives, according to Chinese financial media. Foreign capital inflows are typically viewed by Chinese state media as a sign of support for the domestic market.

On Nov. 12, the Chinese vice premier met with Invesco President and CEO Andrew Schlossberg in Beijing, and on Nov. 14, he met with HSBC Group Chairman Mark Tucker. HSBC stated that they had nothing to add to the report, while Invesco did not respond to a request for comment.

In the past two decades, the U.S.-China capital markets have been "arguably the most dynamic and inter-connected aspect" of their bilateral relationship, according to Winston Ma, an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law.

If the cross-border finance relationship is productive and collaborative, it can result in mutual prosperity; otherwise, it will lead to mutual assured destruction, as Ma stated, using the Cold War deterrence principle.