Steve Bannon flew to Beijing last week for a secret meeting with the second-most powerful Chinese Communist party official — less than a month after the former chief strategist declared America was at "economic war with China," the Financial Times reported.
According to FT, Bannon met with Wang Qishan, the head of the Chinese Communist party's anti-corruption campaign, at the Chinese leadership compound.
It followed Bannon's closed-door speech at an investor conference hosted by a Chinese state-owned brokerage and investment group, FT reported.
"The Chinese reached out to Bannon before his Hong Kong speech because they wanted to ask him about economic nationalism and populist movements, which was the subject of his speech," one of two unnamed sources told FT.
Wang – whom FT reported is considered the second most powerful person in China after President Xi Jinping – arranged the meeting after learning Bannon was speaking on the topic, that source told FT.
The meeting had no connection to President Donald Trump's upcoming visit to China, FT reported.
"We're at economic war with China," Bannon told The American Prospect last month, days before his exit from the White House.
"It's in all their literature. They're not shy about saying what they're doing. One of us is going to be a hegemon in 25 or 30 years, and it's gonna be them if we go down this path. On Korea, they're just tapping us along. It's just a sideshow."
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