Copyright timesnownews
US President Donald Trump is set to hold high-stakes meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea today. The landmark meeting - their first face-to-face talks after 2019 - is expected to de-escalate their trade war that has seen the US hit China's access to American technology and Beijing firing back by announcing a sweeping expansion of export controls on critical rare earth minerals – a move that rattled Washington and pushed Trump to threaten to pile an additional 100% tariffs on Chinese goods. Both sides have since appeared to de-escalate the trade tension following eleventh-hour trade talks between top negotiators this weekend in Malaysia. Xi and Trump will meet on the sidelines of an international summit in South Korea Thursday, where they're expected to agree to a framework for managing their economic ties. While eleventh-hour trade talks between top negotiators this weekend in Malaysia deescalated the tension between the top 2 econmies, it is not yet clear what each side has agreed to concede to get to that point. Beijing, unlike Washington, however, has yet to confirm the talks, CNN reported. Xi, experts said, will enter the room after cementing a new reality in trade relation with the US: China will negotiate, but it won’t be cowed. 'China is Very Calm' The current US tariffs have put pressure on China's slowing economy. Experts said that the tariffs – currently at upwards of 50% on average – could more than double if the two leaders can't find common ground. While US officials tout Trump's ability to "create leverage" to put pressure on China, top officials in Beijing seem ready for this contest, CNN reported. Beijing has created natural leverage through its strategic dominance over the global rare earths supply chain, diversifing trade to become less dependent on the US market. Beijing was "fully prepared" for Trump when he started his second term, CNN said, quoting Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University in Beijing. "But from the US side, any tariff or any measures taken (by) the Chinese side has helped President Trump himself to learn the capacity of China is different from eight years ago … and he understands that what is changed – is the US is not the dominant power anymore," Wang said. Beijing, he said, has further continued to insulate itself from future shocks by aiming to deepen a top-down drive for tech and industrial self-sufficiency in its upcoming five-year plan. "China is very calm in facing all these conflicts and difficulties set up by United States," Wang Wen, dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies think tank at Renmin University in Beijing, told a gathering of reporters last week in Beijing, according to CNN. "The United States is still a major partner, however, among China’s landscape, the US is losing its importance," Wang added.
