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Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump have begun a landmark meeting in South Korea that could reset the volatile relationship between the world's two largest economies and rival superpowers. Both leaders shook hands on Thursday morning at an airbase in the coastal city of Busan at the start of their talks, which are taking place on the sidelines of an international summit. The meeting, the leaders' first face-to-face meeting of Trump's second term, caps off the US president's five-day, three-country visit to Asia – and expectations are high for the two leaders to stabilise a fractious relationship in their discussion ahead. READ MORE: Dad almost killed in freak bed base accident The global economy has for months been roiled by a tit-for-tat of mounting tariffs, export controls and other penalties hitting areas from high-tech goods to high-seas shipping, as the US and China have vacillated between escalation and negotiation. At the crux of those tensions are a gaping trade imbalance and efforts from the US to ensure its national security against an increasingly assertive China, including by expanding restrictions on China's access to American advanced tech, such as the advanced semiconductors needed to power AI. On the table before the two leaders, who are meeting at Busan's Gimhae Air Base, are a range of thorny issues including tariffs and their trade imbalance, China's sweeping export controls on rare earths, US restrictions on Chinese access to American high-tech, and China's role in the illicit fentanyl trade. READ MORE: Renewed search for missing boy Gus to focus on dam China's purchases of American soybeans, the future in the US of the popular, Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, the war in Ukraine, as well as Taiwan are also topics likely to be on the leaders' table over the course of their talks. A meeting between US and Chinese trade negotiators over the weekend signaled that Trump and Xi could agree to a framework on navigating their ties going forward – but any agreement reached will be just one touchstone in a thorny and volatile great power rivalry between the world's superpower democracy and an authoritarian China, whose growing military assertiveness under Xi in the East and South China Seas is rattling US allies in the region. But both sides have seen a leader-level meeting as key to stabilise the relationship as they continue to grapple with how to structure their economic ties. Any outcome from Thursday's talks will be a boon for China, which wants predictability in its US relations while it sprints toward self-sufficiency from American high-tech, and also for Trump, whose meeting with Xi delivers a big-ticket finale for what has already been a dealmaking blitz across Asia. DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
