
Trump-Xi meeting: What’s at stake and who has the upper hand?
Al Jazeera
From tariffs to TikTok, rare-earth metals to fentanyl, a packed agenda awaits the leaders of the US and China.
United States President Donald Trump expects “a lot of problems” will be solved between Washington and Beijing when he meets China’s President Xi Jinping in South Korea for a high-stakes meeting on Thursday, amid growing trade tensions between the two.
Relations between the two world powers have been strained in recent years, with Washington and Beijing imposing tit-for-tat trade tariffs topping 100 percent against each other this year, the US restricting its exports of semiconductors vital for artificial intelligence (AI) development and Beijing restricting exports of critical rare-earth metals which are vital for the defence industry and also the development of AI, among other issues.
Officials from Washington and Beijing have been locked in trade talks since August to de-escalate trade tensions, and they also came up with a framework for a trade deal during meetings in Malaysia over the weekend.
On the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Wednesday, Trump said an expected trade deal between China and the US would be good for both countries and “something very exciting for everybody”.
But only a meeting between Trump and Xi can confirm if a trade deal is really in the making. According to analysts, expectations of the two world powers’ ability to reset their relationship and agree to any deal at this meeting are low.













