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President Donald Trump and Chinese language President Xi Jinping will kick off high-stakes talks amid their ongoing commerce dispute and geopolitical tensions.
Trump and Xi are anticipated to satisfy on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) summit in Busan, South Korea, of their first in-person assembly since Trump’s first time period. The assembly is predicted to start within the morning hours on Thursday, Wednesday evening within the U.S.
Trump has expressed optimism about securing a cope with China even because the commerce dispute has escalated with the 2 sides attempting to exert leverage over the opposite in an eventual deal.
As Trump and Xi put together to carry discussions over the financial relationship between the 2 geopolitical rivals they lead, this is a take a look at a few of the key subjects they could talk about.
President Donald Trump and Chinese language President Xi Jinping will meet in particular person for the primary time since Trump’s first time period in workplace. ( Ju Peng/Xinhua through Getty)
AMERICAN SOYBEAN FARMERS FACE FINANCIAL CRISIS AS CHINA TRADE DISPUTE THREATENS LIVELIHOODS
Soybeans
China halted purchases of U.S. soybeans earlier this 12 months in retaliation for the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese language exports and as an alternative pivoted to purchasing soybeans from South America.
The transfer reduce off American farmers from the world’s largest importer of soybeans, a market by which they had been China’s main provider of soybeans relationship again to earlier than Trump’s first time period. Soybean farmers are in a vital interval for advertising and marketing their crop, and a failure to resolve the dispute would depart them struggling to seek out various consumers and taking a monetary hit.
Forward of the Trump-Xi assembly, Reuters reported {that a} Chinese language state-owned agency moved ahead with the primary buy of U.S. soybeans from China in months, although the 2 commerce sources advised the outlet they do not anticipate a major rise in demand for U.S. soybeans after China’s purchases from South America.
China halted purchases of U.S. soybeans earlier this 12 months, although it has reportedly allowed some purchases to go ahead prematurely of the Trump-Xi assembly. (Scott Olson/Getty Photos)
TRUMP, AUSTRALIA PM SIGN $8.5B CRITICAL MINERALS DELA TO COUNTER CHINA DOMINANCE IN RARE EARTHS
Fentanyl
Trump mentioned Wednesday he expects he’ll scale back tariffs on Chinese language items if China commits to curbing the stream of precursor chemical substances used to make fentanyl, an artificial opioid that’s the main reason behind U.S. overdose deaths lately.
The president imposed 20% tariffs on China over fentanyl earlier this 12 months and in addition imposed them on Canada and Mexico, arguing the precursor chemical substances are shipped by means of these nations.
CHINA RESPONDS TO US-AUSTRALIA RARE EARTHS DEAL
Uncommon earths
The Chinese language authorities lately moved to implement harder export controls on uncommon earth minerals, that are utilized in quite a lot of high-tech functions, starting from smartphones and electrical automobile batteries to navy radars and cruise missiles.
China is the world’s main producer of uncommon earths and has the most important reserves, based on a report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS discovered that, in 2024, China’s mines produced 270,000 tons of uncommon earths, and the nation has 44 million tons of reserves.
The U.S. and Australia lately introduced an settlement to cooperate on creating uncommon earths in response to China’s transfer. The 2 governments agreed to every make investments $1 billion in mining and processing initiatives within the subsequent six months and to chop permits for mines, processing services and associated operations.
OIL PRICES SURGE AS TRUMP HITS RUSSIAN ENERGY GIANTS WITH SWEEPING NEW SANCTIONS
China and India are rethinking Russian oil purchases after the U.S. sanctioned Russian vitality corporations over their function in funding the conflict in Ukraine. (Hussein Faleh/AFP through Getty Photos)
Russian oil and vitality
Final week, the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Russian oil corporations over their function in funding Russia’s conflict in Ukraine, which has develop into the largest land conflict in Europe since World Conflict II.
The sanctions, aimed primarily at China and India as key vitality purchasers of Russia, give corporations till Nov. 1 to chop their transactions with Russian oil producers or face dropping entry to the Western banking system.
Main Chinese language state oil corporations, together with PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC and Zhenhua Oil moved to halt purchases of Russian seaborne oil, no less than quickly, in response to the sanctions.
TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER ALLOWING TIKTOK DEAL TO PROCEED
Trump accepted a deal permitting TikTok’s acquisition that he’s trying to finalize with China. (AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Photos)
TikTok
Trump mentioned he could possibly signal a remaining cope with Xi that permits TikTok, the short-form video platform owned by Chinese language firm ByteDance, to separate its U.S. operations from ByteDance in a transaction valued round $14 billion.
The president signed an govt order late final month to permit the deal to proceed, although the U.S. and Chinese language governments hadn’t finalized the settlement that will enable the transaction to proceed.
Final 12 months, Congress enacted a regulation that banned TikTok and different apps, that are topic to the management of adversarial international governments like China’s, over issues about knowledge safety and using the platforms’ algorithms for international affect operations. It allowed for them to be divested from international possession to stay out there to U.S. customers.
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The regulation took impact Jan. 19, 2025, after it survived a Supreme Courtroom problem and allowed a 90-day extension, although the president signed a number of 75-day extensions to conclude the deal.
Reuters contributed to this report.
