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The high-stakes summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, took place in Busan, South Korea, on Thursday and lasted 100 minutes. It marked their first in-person meeting since Trump returned to the White House for his second presidential term, having last met in 2019. 1. Personal warmth on display The two exchanged cordial greetings and praised each other. Trump called Xi his “friend”, describing Xi as a “very distinguished and respected president” and “a great leader of a great country”. Trump said he expected they would “have a fantastic relationship for a long period of time”. Xi, during his opening remarks, spoke of a “warm” feeling upon seeing Trump again. After the talks ended, Trump whispered something to Xi before escorting the Chinese leader to his car. 2. Xi downplays bilateral rivalry In his opening remarks, Xi struck a conciliatory tone as he described ties between China and the US. He framed the two powers as “partners and friends” capable of helping “each other succeed and prosper together”. Xi told Trump that “China’s development goes hand in hand with your vision to make America great again”. 3. Due credit for peace efforts However, Xi rebutted Trump’s assertion that China was not involved in establishing peace between Cambodia and Thailand. Xi told Trump that China had been helping the two Southeast Asian neighbours settle their border dispute “in our own way”. Still, Xi stated that he appreciated Trump’s “great contribution to the recent conclusion of the Gaza ceasefire agreement”. 4. Concrete outcomes The meeting appeared to yield a number of outcomes. After the talks, Trump said the US would reduce its fentanyl-related tariffs on China by 10 percentage points with immediate effect and expected to see a trade deal with China “pretty soon”. Separately, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced that Washington would postpone its Section 301 investigation of Chinese shipbuilding, begun last year over accusations that Beijing had engaged in unfair commercial practices. In addition, Trump said the two countries agreed he would visit China in April and that Xi would make a trip to the US at “some time”. 5. Trump’s rave review Trump rated his meeting with Xi a 12 out of 10, saying China would start buying “very large quantities” of American soybeans and that the roadblock of China’s rare earth export controls “is gone now”. Trump said the two sides discussed Ukraine and semiconductors but not Blackwell chips, which are considered the best AI chips of the American tech company Nvidia. Notably, the US leader said Taiwan “never came up” – an issue that was widely considered a top agenda item for Beijing and not mentioned in its official statement of the meeting.
