Washington — President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are meeting in Busan, South Korea, as the two leaders look to reach a trade deal they can both claim as a victory.
The face-to-face meeting began shortly after 11 a.m. local time on Thursday, or 10 p.m. ET Wednesday, at a South Korean military base. The leaders of the world’s two largest economies — which have been embroiled in a months-long trade war — shook hands and delivered brief remarks to the press, before ushering reporters out for the meeting.
Mr. Trump said he has a good relationship with Xi.
“We’re going to have a very successful meeting, I have no doubt,” the U.S. leader said during his first in-person meeting with Xi in six years. “But he’s a very tough negotiator. That’s not good.”
Through a translator, Xi said trade negotiators from both sides have made progress in addressing “major concerns,” and he believes the U.S. and China should be “partners and friends.”
“Given our different national conditions, we do not always see eye-to-eye with each other, and it is normal for the two leading economies of the world to have frictions now and then,” Xi said, though he noted that relations have been “stable on the whole.”
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The U.S. president on Wednesday said he hopes to walk away from the meeting with a deal.
“We’re going to be, I hope, making a deal,” Mr. Trump said. “I think we’re going to have a deal. I think it will be a good deal for both. The world is watching, and I think we’ll have something that’s very exciting for everybody.”
The public White House schedule allotted less than two hours for the meeting with Xi, although Mr. Trump said on a hot mic during a dinner hosted by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung that the Xi meeting would last “three to four hours.”
China is the U.S.’s third-largest trading partner, behind only Mexico and Canada, with the U.S. buying $438.9 billion in Chinese goods last year, while China bought $143.5 billion in goods from the U.S. But Mr. Trump has pushed for higher tariffs on Chinese imports, both due to fentanyl trafficking and alleged unfair trade practices, sparking a trade war.
The two sides briefly levied massive tit-for-tat tariffs on each other in April, before delaying those levies to buy time for negotiations. In August, Mr. Trump signed an executive action delaying the reinstatement of higher tariffs on Chinese goods for another 90 days, extending the pause until mid-November.
U.S. and Chinese officials have been holding trade talks for months leading up to Thursday’s Trump-Xi meeting.
Mr. Trump’s threat to impose an additional 100% tariff rate on Chinese goods starting Nov. 1 is “effectively off the table” for now, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” Mr. Trump threatened the additional 100% tariff — which would bring tariffs on Chinese imports up to as high as 155% — in retaliation for China’s increased export controls on rare earth minerals and magnets. China has the vast majority of the world’s supply of those raw materials, critical for manufacturing in key technology areas like semiconductors and missiles.
Bessent told “Face the Nation” that he expects the threat of 100% tariffs has “gone away, as has the threat of the immediate imposition of the Chinese initiating a worldwide export control regime.”
Aboard Air Force One on Wednesday, Mr. Trump also said he believes he’ll lower tariffs imposed on Chinese imports earlier this year due to fentanyl trafficking after his meeting with Xi, noting China would be “working with me” on a compromise.
Bessent said he expects Mr. Trump and Xi to sign a deal Thursday placing TikTok under majority U.S. ownership, although Chinese-owned ByteDance could still have a minority ownership stake of under 20%.
Defense is also a major point of tension for China and the U.S. Mr. Trump’s first secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said Mr. Trump should commit to Taiwan’s independence.
“Xi Jinping is expected to press President Trump for clarity about America’s stance toward Taiwan at their meeting this week,” Pompeo wrote on social media. “America should oblige — and affirm our unequivocal commitment to Taiwan’s sovereignty and independence from Beijing.”
Moments before the meeting with Xi began, Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social that he’s directed the Pentagon to restart nuclear weapons testing. The president said earlier Wednesday that he will allow South Korea, a rival of China’s, to develop a nuclear-powered submarine.
The last time Mr. Trump and Xi met in person was on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan in 2019, during Mr. Trump’s first term in office, although the two leaders have spoken by phone. The last conversation the White House disclosed between the two men was on Sept. 19.
Busan, known as an educational and cultural center along Korea’s southeastern coast, is the second most populous city in South Korea behind its capital, Seoul. The Xi meeting is the final agenda item on Mr. Trump’s schedule for his five-day Asia tour, concluding a trip primarily intended to strengthen economic ties and cement trade deals in the South Pacific region.
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