President Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping have begun what is expected to be three to four hours of high-stakes ,in-person talks in hopes of lowering the temperature of a simmering trade war that has threatened to boil over and upend the global economy.
The two leaders arrived within minutes of each other at South Korea’s Gimhae Air Base, a military facility on the edge of Gimhae International Airport in Busan, the second-largest city in South Korea.
Speaking during a brief media availability at the top of their summit, Trump said he and Xi would have “a very successful meeting” and called Xi “a very tough negotiator.”
“We have a great understanding. We have a great relationship, we’ve always had a great relationship,” Trump said.
A few minutes later during a second photo opportunity before the talks began, Trump said it was a “great honor” to be with Xi, who he called “a friend of mine” and “very distinguished and respected.”
“We will be having some discussions. I think we’ve already agreed to a lot of things, and we’ll agree to some more right now, but President Xi is a great leader of a great country, and I think we’re going to have a fantastic relationship for a long period of time,” Trump said.
Xi, speaking through a translator, said it was “a great pleasure” to meet with Trump and said he felt “very warm” seeing the American leader again “because it’s been many years.”
He noted that he and Trump had spoken three times and exchanged “several letters” since Trump’s return to the White House and said Sino-American relations had “remained stable on the whole” during that time.
“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 and in the face of winds, waves and challenges,” Xi said.
He added that he and Trump should “stay the right course and ensure the steady sailing forward of the giant ship of China-US relations,” and suggested that his vision for China’s continued development “goes hand in hand” with Trump’s “vision to make America great again.”
“Over the years, I have stated in public many times that China and the United States should be partners and friends. This is what history has taught us and what reality demands,” Xi continued.
He added later that he was “ready to continue working” with Trump to “build a solid foundation for China-US relations and create a sound atmosphere for the development of both countries.”
Trump, who traveled to the meeting site by helicopter, had referred to the long-awaited summit as the “G2” in a post on Truth Social shortly before Xi’s plane touched down.
He also claimed in a separate post that the United States would begin the process of resuming testing of its nuclear weapons stockpile “immediately,” citing Beijing’s efforts to expand its estimated 600 nuclear warheads to at least 1,000 by 2030. But when pressed to explain the social media post by reporters, he declined to do so.
Trump’s meeting with Xi is his first face-to-face interaction with the Chinese leader since he returned to power for a second, non-consecutive term in January. It follows a series of phone calls between the two leaders over the opening nine months of Trump’s term.
The summit provides Trump with a chance for face-saving and deescalation between the world’s two largest economies following months of tumult caused in large part by his freewheeling use of unilaterally-imposed import taxes and Beijing’s use of export controls on rare earth elements to retaliate.
The tensions and turmoil brought about by the president’s ongoing trade war have often spooked global markets and left investors concerned over the possibility that the result could be an implosion of the world economy that would benefit neither nation.
But the anticipated deescalation has allowed investors and businesses to relax ahead of the meeting, with American stock markets seeing gains from investors hoping for a new framework for Sino-American trade relations coming out of the summit.
Trump first announced his intention to meet with the Chinese leader last month after what he called a “very productive” phone call focusing largely on his administration’s agreement to put TikTok’s American operations in the hands of an American ownership group.
Since then, Trump has escalated his war of words with Beijing by accusing China of leveraging its soybean purchase power for negotiations and declares soybeans to be “a major topic of discussion” when he meets Xi.
He has also hit out at Xi’s government for over the proposed rare earth restrictions and threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on all Chinese goods starting Friday in retaliation.
Such a tariff would increase the tax rate Americans pay for Chinese imports to a whopping 157 percent, though Trump later conceded that such a high tariff is “not sustainable” during an interview on Fox Business earlier this month.
American officials have echoed that sentiment following preparatory meetings with their Chinese counterparts earlier this week in Kuala Lumpur, where Trump made the first stop on his three-leg swing through Asia during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations annual summit.
Beijing’s lead trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, said following the preliminary talks that Chinese and American officials had reached what he called a “preliminary consensus,” while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later said they had come up with “a very successful framework” for the leader-to-leader talks.
Trump himself suggested he was considering lowering tariffs he imposed on Chinese imports earlier this year, supposedly over Beijing’s failure to curb trafficking in chemicals used to make fentanyl.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to South Korea on Wednesday, the president said America’s “relationship with China is very good.”
“I expect to be lowering [the tariffs] because I believe that they’re going to help us with the fentanyl situation,” he said.
Despite Trump’s optimism on easing the months-long trade tensions with Beijing, outstanding issues remain that could lead to a rocky road ahead for both nations.
China continues to provide support to Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, and both the U.S. and China remain in fierce competition in the manufacturing, technology and artificial intelligence sectors.
Other potential sticking points include China’s push for influence abroad, both economic and military, and Beijing’s continued designs on Taiwan, the self-governing island which it considers a rogue province.
But administration officials have said Trump and Xi’s talks will be largely confined to matters of trade and commerce, and Trump himself has indicated that he does not plan to speak with Xi about Taiwan.
