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When President Donald Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday, it could reset relations with the global power that’s long been defined as America’s greatest geopolitical threat.
The meeting comes at a critical moment — as both nations navigate escalating trade tensions, military posturing in the Pacific and a race for dominance in critical technologies that will shape the century ahead.
Global markets will be watching closely to see how the meeting unfolds. A successful meeting could end with the U.S. backing off of its threat of triple-digit tariffs and China allowing for more exports of rare earth minerals and magnets.
The Trump administration has announced the world’s two biggest economies have brokered the framework of an agreement both sides may sign during the meeting of principals on Thursday. The agreement would see Beijing defer export restrictions and avert the additional 100% tariff that was set to take effect on Saturday — an effective return to the status quo before the trade standoff began in the spring.
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Other U.S. priorities are sure to come up: increasing Chinese purchases of American agricultural products, finalizing the Chinese sale of TikTok and getting China to do more about the flow of precursor chemicals for drugs like fentanyl to the U.S.
“China’s going to be working with me,” Trump said when asked what Beijing would do to cut back on fentanyl trafficking.
Xi, meanwhile, is expected to try to get Trump to understand his side on the Taiwan issue. U.S. military planners for years have expected Beijing to be capable of invading Taiwan by 2027 and prepared for a war scenario in which the U.S. would step in on behalf of the island democracy.
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Trump struck an optimistic tone about the planned meetup in Busan, South Korea — his first sit-down with Xi in six years.
“That’s a big, big meeting, and I think it’s going to work out very well, actually. I think it’s going to be great for everybody,” Trump said during a dinner with business leaders Tuesday in Tokyo.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that Trump and Xi would “consummate [the TikTok] transaction in South Korea on Thursday.”
But others are less optimistic that TikTok will hand over total control to an independent U.S. company.
“I believe Xi Jinping views this as a strategic asset,” Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., chair of the House Select Committee on competition with China told “‘Face the Nation.”
“That’s why he didn’t want to sell it to some of the other American companies that were interested in purchasing it. So as long as they’re involved, I think we have to recognize that TikTok, even an American version, still could be open to influence from the Chinese Communist Party.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio sought to reassure Taipei that “no one is contemplating” veering away from Taiwan in exchange for preferential trade terms.
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The summit comes just after Trump shored up relations with Japan and South Korea.
“I want to just let you know anytime you have any question, any doubt, anything you want, any favors you need, anything I can do to help Japan, we will be there,” Trump said to Japan’s new prime minister, Senae Takaichi. “We are an ally at the strongest level.”
