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Xi Jinping and Donald Trump have concluded a summit that will determine whether the two superpowers extend a trade war truce or return to full-blown economic hostilities that could roil global markets.
After just under two hours of talks between the Chinese and US presidents in South Korea, Trump left the venue to return to Washington on Air Force One. Neither side provided immediate details about whether they reached a trade agreement.
In opening remarks at the start of their high-stakes summit in Busan on Thursday, Trump said Xi was a “great leader of a great country” before adding that he believed the two would “have a fantastic relationship for a long period of time”.
Sitting across the table from Trump, Xi said it was a “great pleasure” to meet the US president for the sixth time.
The Chinese leader said it was natural that the US and China would “not always see eye to eye” and added that it was “normal for the two leading economies of the world to have frictions now and then”.
“In the face of winds, waves and challenges, you and I . . . should stay the right course and ensure the steady sailing forward of the giant ship of China-US relations,” Xi said.
“I always believe that China’s development goes hand in hand with your vision to Make America Great Again.”
The US and Chinese leader met in the southern South Korean city of Busan to discuss approving a framework deal on trade that their teams reached last weekend.
That accord followed a dramatic escalation in tensions this month, when China unveiled a sweeping export control regime for rare earths and critical minerals used in technologies from the iPhone to hypersonic weapons.
The summit comes six months after Trump slapped 145 per cent tariffs on goods from China and Xi retaliated with a 125 per cent levy on those from the US, creating a situation that US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent described as a de facto trade embargo.
Earlier this week, Bessent said that the tentative deal could allow the countries to extend a November 10 deadline when their current trade truce is set to expire.
Ahead of the talks, China’s foreign minister sounded a positive note, saying Beijing was “willing to make joint efforts with the US side to work for positive outcomes of this meeting”.
US and Chinese officials have hinted at elements of the deal, which would include Beijing approving American investors taking control of popular short-form video app TikTok in the US, as well as buying soyabeans from American farmers.
China has also signalled that it is willing to postpone the implementation of its new rare earths export control regime for one year.
China’s Xinhua state-run news agency said Xi was travelling with his chief of staff Cai Qi, foreign minister Wang Yi and economic tsar He Lifeng, who is in charge of negotiating the trade deal with the US.
Ahead of the meeting, speculation had mounted in Washington that Trump could approve the export of highly advanced Nvidia chips to China, which would trigger widespread concern among China hawks on Capitol Hill.
“In pursuit of a deal, Trump could end up making concessions that undermine his Maga [Make America Great Again] agenda and put China in a stronger position,” said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the German Marshall Fund.
“If the US rolls back some of its export restrictions on advanced chips and agrees to provide Nvidia’s Blackwell B30A chips to China, the US will forfeit its compute advantage and put at risk its lead in AI.”
Glaser said the best-case scenario was that the leaders reached a deal that produced “a modicum of stability” in relations, but cautioned that even such an agreement might not prove durable.
Shortly before the summit, Trump said he had told the Pentagon to restart testing of US nuclear weapons — an apparent reversal of policy which had put a moratorium on such tests for decades. It was unclear if Trump was trying to create leverage with China, which is engaged in a rapid expansion of its nuclear forces.
Asked about the move by reporters as he sat across from Xi before the start of their private meeting, Trump declined to comment.
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