On October 30, 2025, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping held their first face-to-face meeting since 2019 in Busan. Both stressed a friendly tone in public: the US president called the talks “very friendly,” while the Chinese leader said dialogue was preferable to confrontation.
The summit came after a series of de-escalatory signals. Following delegation talks in Kuala Lumpur, Washington and Beijing said they had reached a framework consensus on urgent trade and economic issues, and markets reacted with gains. Against that backdrop, the sides avoided a scenario in which the US could sharply raise tariffs on Chinese imports.
In the preceding months, the trade war had intensified significantly. In February, the Trump administration imposed 10 percent tariffs on all Chinese goods, raised them to 20 percent in March, and in April, after “Liberation Day,” rates climbed to 145 percent on Chinese goods and 125 percent on US supplies to China. In May, the sides temporarily cut part of those tariffs to 10 percent, but separate 20 percent “fentanyl” duties remained in place.
Additional pressure emerged after October 9, when Beijing tightened controls on exports of rare earth elements and magnets. According to Trump, the rare-earth issue was resolved in the talks, and the agreement reached is set for one year with the option of extension. He also said the “fentanyl” tariffs would be reduced from 20 percent to 10 percent, lowering the overall US rate on Chinese goods from 57 percent to 47 percent.
At the start of the meeting, Xi Jinping said the two countries’ trade and economic teams had reached a basic consensus on the main issues of concern and had made encouraging progress.
China also resumed purchases of US soybeans, an important issue for farmers in states that traditionally support Trump. At the same time, the underlying disagreements remain unresolved: Washington continues to accuse Beijing of unfair trade practices, while analysts say China is now acting with far greater confidence and initiative in its dispute with the United States.
Before the meeting, Trump said he intended to discuss Russia and Ukraine with Xi and hoped for Beijing’s help. After the summit, he said he had not raised the issue of China’s purchases of Russian oil, but added that the two sides would work together on the Ukrainian question. More broadly, the meeting suggested that the acute phase of the US-China confrontation has, for now, eased, though the thaw may prove temporary.