With global trade at stake, the two most powerful men on the planet met for an hour and 40 minutes in the reception room of a South Korean Air Force base near Busan city airport. Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, the presidents of the United States and China, the two superpowers in a full-blown struggle for global hegemony, had many pending issues to discuss in this first face-to-face meeting since the American returned to the White House in January.
The big news was that the two leaders have committed to halting the tit-for-tat in the trade war initiated by the American earlier this year. Beijing would thus postpone for a year the implementation of its new controls on the export of rare earths, essential elements to power all kinds of technology, from advanced semiconductors to military aircraft. In return, Washington withdraws its threat of additional 100% tariffs on Chinese products. "The rare earths issue is resolved," Trump stated.
After a long handshake (with a more talkative Trump, as usual, and a colder and more distant Xi, as usual), before continuing the closed-door meeting, Xi stated in front of the journalists that both leaders should "guide the direction of bilateral relations and work together to achieve more practical and beneficial successes."
The Chinese president added that China's development does not contradict the U.S. vision of "Making America Great Again", clearly alluding to Trump's famous slogan. In turn, the American praised Xi as a "great leader," predicting that the two countries will maintain a "fantastic relationship" for a long period of time.
"The tariff suspension that both parties agreed on in May and extended in August, will be extended again for another year," announced the Chinese Ministry of Commerce in a statement following the meeting.
An extension of the truce that has positive echoes in both Washington and Beijing. Trump can boast at home as a great negotiator after sitting down with his great rival. For Washington, the goal was to demonstrate that its firm stance against China has yielded results. Xi, on the other hand, aimed to show strength by confronting the world's largest economy, resisting coercion, and indicating that he has learned to counterattack with retaliations that are as damaging as those of the U.S. "We have never intended to challenge or replace anyone," Xi assured in the meeting. "We have focused on managing our own affairs well and sharing development opportunities with countries around the world. This has been one of the keys to China's success."
Trump arrived exuberant at this summit after being feted and showered with gifts during his stops on the Asian tour, wooing allies like Japan and South Korea with trade agreements aligned with Washington's demands. Xi landed in Busan after reaffirming his unquestionable authority at home by setting the course for the next five-year plan, the centralized planning system.
The Chinese leader also welcomes Trump's commitment to make a State visit to Beijing in April next year. This is a very valuable political gift for Chinese propaganda to portray Xi as a great global statesman, capable of organizing a grand military parade accompanied by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and then maintaining a good rapport with Trump.
In the more geopolitical arena, there were two main complex issues: Xi's support for Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's threats to Taiwan, which does not renounce the use of force to take control of an island that de facto functions as an independent country.
While Trump stated that the Taiwan issue was not discussed in the meeting, regarding the war in Ukraine, he said that Beijing and Washington "will work together." Trump had asked China to help convince Putin to end the war in Ukraine. Xi, on the other hand, has pressured the U.S. to change its position of full support for Taiwan, at least publicly stating opposition to the island's independence.
It does not seem likely that Beijing will let go of Putin's hand, who always boasts of the "limitless partnership" that he has renewed several times in recent years with Xi. China has been a vital support for Moscow since the West began imposing sanctions on the Russian regime, and Washington has accused the Chinese government of fueling Putin's war machinery by selling the Russians dual-use materials both civil and military.
In the commercial field, the two countries had already reached an initial truce agreed upon in the first meeting in Geneva in May 2025 and extended during subsequent meetings of their negotiating teams. At that time, Trump's imposed tariffs, which had raised tariffs on Chinese products to 145%, were suspended, reducing them to 30%, while China's retaliatory tariffs of 125% were lowered to 10%.
The 20% difference corresponded to punitive tariffs related to fentanyl. Washington accused Beijing of not doing enough to stop the shipment of the chemical precursors necessary to manufacture this synthetic drug that is causing so much devastation in the U.S. Trump committed on Thursday to halve these tariffs - reducing the total tariff burden, including those imposed by the previous U.S. administration, from 57% to 47% - in exchange for a new commitment from Beijing to intensify its campaign against these chemical precursors.
"China and the United States should focus on the long-term benefits of cooperation, instead of getting caught in a vicious circle of mutual retaliation," emphasized Xi. The U.S. president also stated that China will invest more in the U.S. and that Trump will buy a "huge amount" of American soybeans and other agricultural products, adding that a formal trade agreement will be signed soon. For now, Washington has also committed not to add more Chinese companies to its export blacklist.
Protests at the Korean stronghold
The most important political summit of the year (which Trump described as the "G2") was held in a military stronghold surrounded by fences and barbed wire, an unglamorous place for such an important meeting, shielded against anti-Chinese and anti-American protests that were scheduled. In South Korea, on one hand, there is a strong ultra-conservative movement that embraced conspiracy theories about how China, along with North Korea, had infiltrated agents in Parliament with the intention of undermining South Korean democracy. Former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who is in pretrial detention on charges of insurrection, clung to this to justify the short-lived martial law he decreed almost a year ago.
In the polarized Asian country, protests against Donald Trump have also begun to make noise, especially in recent months, shaking a historic ally like Seoul with his trade war. Among the protesters who have gathered in recent days were lawmakers from minor left-wing parties criticizing the current South Korean leader, progressive Lee, for courting Trump, yielding to his commercial demands, and on Wednesday, presenting him with several gifts, including a replica of the gold crown of an ancient Korean medieval king.
The only world leader who has withstood Trump's tariff slaps has been Xi, who has spent the entire year exchanging commercial blows and sanctions with Washington. In this dispute, Beijing played with a winning card, that of the monopoly it holds in rare earth production.
After the meeting in Busan, Trump boarded Air Force One to return to his country, concluding his Asian tour. Xi traveled to the neighboring city of Gyeongju, which is hosting the Asia-Pacific Cooperation Forum (APEC) this week. In the summit, each delegation was composed of seven strong men from both governments. From the U.S. side, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stood out. From China, accompanying Xi, was the country's foreign minister, Wang Yi, and the vice premier in charge of trade negotiations, He Lifeng.
The last time Trump and Xi came face to face was in 2019, during the first term of the Republican, on the sidelines of a G-20 summit in Osaka. Back then, discussions also focused on the early stages of the trade war. For decades, Chinese state investment in export industries opened the doors to the US - and the rest of the world - to cheap Chinese products. In return, Beijing received significant investments and US technology. The love affair ended when, during the rapid development of the Asian giant, Washington began to see Beijing as a threat to its hegemony.
Despite their subsequent clashes, Trump and Xi started their relationship on a good note, inaugurating their bilateral summits in 2017 at Trump's luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. From that first contact came a striking headline: Trump decided to bomb Syria while enjoying the most beautiful chocolate cake ever seen with Xi Jinping in a room overlooking the sea.