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President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump reached a tactical trade truce on Thursday in Busan, South Korea, easing heightened tensions over rare earths and tariffs while leaving tech and TikTok disputes unresolved, multiple media outlets have reported. Their much anticipated meeting took place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. The agreement included a one-year pause on China’s export controls on rare earths – critical to technology and defence supply chains – that Trump has said could be “routinely extended.” It cut the US’ fentanyl-related tariffs of Chinese goods from 20 percent to 10 percent (making the total tariff rate a still very high 47 percent). China also appears to have agreed to resume US soybean purchases. According to Wolfe Research strategist Tobin Marcus, Beijing successfully used its grip on the global supply of rare earths and a US soybean embargo to force Washington to lower its tariffs. Trivium China geopolitics analyst Joe Mazur said he saw the results as vindicating China’s strategy of “never striking first but always striking back”. Emily Kilcrease, director at the Center for a New American Security, described Thursday’s meeting as a de-escalation of measures both sides had taken since Trump took office at the start of the year and launched his so-called Liberation Day tariffs on the world – which Beijing responded to in kind. [See more: China posts a surge in exports, defying expectations] Opening the pair’s talks in Busan, Xi insisted that “China’s development and rejuvenation [were] not incompatible with President Trump’s goal of ‘making America great again’.” Afterwards, he said he was willing to work with Trump to “ensure the steady sailing forward of the giant ship of China-US relations.” He also called for both sides to finalise follow-up steps as quickly as possible. Trump, in turn, heaped praise on Xi – describing him as a “great leader of a great country.” The two leaders agreed to visit each others’ home turf next year. Trump said he planned to be in China in April, while Xi’s trip would take place at a later date. Their meeting followed last week’s trade negotiations in Malaysia, after which US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he expected Trump and Xi to finalise TikTok’s future in South Korea. This did not happen, though China’s Ministry of Commerce has said it would continue working with the US to “resolve issues.” China’s access to Nvidia chips was also left unresolved.
