Trump, Xi meet in South Korea as trade war tensions and new tariffs loom

When President Donald Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday, it could reset relations with the global power that has long been defined as America’s greatest geopolitical threat.

The meeting comes at a critical time – as the two countries face growing trade tensions, military posturing in the Pacific and a race for dominance in critical technologies that will shape the coming century.

Global markets will closely monitor the progress of the meeting. A successful meeting could end if the United States drops its threat of triple-digit tariffs and China allows more exports of rare earth minerals and magnets.

The Trump administration announced that the world’s two largest economies had negotiated the framework of a deal that the two sides could sign at the leaders’ meeting on Thursday. The deal would see Beijing postpone export restrictions and avoid additional 100% tariffs that were due to take effect on Saturday – an effective return to the status quo before the trade standoff began in the spring.

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When President Donald Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday, it could reset relations with the global power that has long been defined as America’s greatest geopolitical threat. (Susan Walsh/AP)

Other U.S. priorities are sure to emerge: increasing Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products, finalizing China’s sale of TikTok, and getting China to do more to combat the flow of precursor chemicals for drugs like fentanyl into the United States.

“China will work with me,” Trump said when asked what Beijing would do to reduce fentanyl trafficking.

Xi, meanwhile, is expected to try to make Trump understand his views on the Taiwan issue. U.S. military planners have for years expected Beijing to be capable of invading Taiwan by 2027 and are preparing for a war scenario in which the United States intervenes on behalf of the island’s democracy.

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President Xi Jinping is expected to try to make Trump understand his views on the Taiwan issue. (Tingshu Wang/Pool/Getty Images)

Trump struck an optimistic tone about the planned meeting in Busan, South Korea – his first meeting with Xi in six years.

“It’s a very big meeting, and I think it’s going to go very well, actually. I think it’s going to be great for everyone,” Trump said at a dinner with business leaders Tuesday in Tokyo.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently met in China. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin swimming pool photo via AP)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Trump and Xi would “consummate the (TikTok) transaction in South Korea on Thursday.”

But others are less optimistic that TikTok will cede full control to an independent U.S. company.

“I believe Xi Jinping views this as a strategic asset,” Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., chairman 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 buying it. So as long as they’re involved, I think we have to recognize that TikTok, even an American version, could still be open to influence from the Chinese Communist Party.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio sought to reassure Taipei that “no one is considering” walking away from Taiwan in exchange for preferential trade terms.

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The summit comes just after Trump strengthened relations with Japan and South Korea.

“I just want to let you know that any time you have any questions, any doubts, anything you want, any favor you need, anything I can do to help Japan, we will be there,” Trump told Japan’s new Prime Minister, Senae Takaichi. “We are an ally at the highest level.”