On the 30th, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for the first time in more than six years. Both sides delivered conciliatory messages and reached agreements on rare earths, fentanyl, tariff, and soybeans. Major foreign media outlets said Trump's strategy and tone differed from the first trade war during his first term, and ultimately the talks produced results favorable to China. Conversely, some assessed that China yielded to U.S. tech sanctions and that the United States won the summit.
According to Bloomberg, Reuters, and China's Ministry of Commerce, the U.S.-China summit resulted in China deferring rare earth export controls for one year, cooperating with the U.S. to curb fentanyl distribution, and resuming imports of U.S. soybeans that had been halted. The United States will lower the tariff on fentanyl imposed on China from 20% to 10% and is set to defer Section 301 measures on China's shipping and shipbuilding industries. Controls imposed on technology companies on China's "blacklist" were also reportedly deferred. The Taiwan issue, which had been expected to be raised by China to pressure the United States, was not addressed at the summit.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Fox Business interview the day before, "The content of the Malaysia trade agreement (negotiated ahead of the summit) was finalized last night. As early as soon, the two sides are expected to exchange signatures."
◇ "Trump aiming for a 'deal-maker' image grows more moderate than in his first term"
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) focused on the change in Trump's tone. Evan Medeiros, a Georgetown University professor who served in senior national security posts in the Obama administration, told the WSJ, "Trump's first term put the U.S. and China on a long-term and undeniable path of competition, if not confrontation," adding, "Now President Trump is reversing the existing China policy and moving into a stage of more frequent high-level engagement." Compared with before, leader- and minister-level exchanges are increasing, raising both the quantity and quality of contacts.
The WSJ added, "President Trump is not touching the major sources of friction with China during his first term—large state subsidies, intellectual property violations, and state-driven pursuits of technological hegemony." Reuters reported that when reciprocal tariff measures were imposed in April, Trump criticized China's industrial policy, overproduction, and export-led growth model, but these were not brought up at the summit. The WSJ analyzed that Trump is taking this strategy because it lets him project an image as a "deal-maker who can transact with the top rival."
◇ China buys time to focus on internal issues… "Unlike the U.S. focus on short-term results, a medium- to long-term win"
This approach appears likely to benefit China. By tamping down U.S.-China tensions, China can gain time to catch up with the United States technologically while addressing economic and political instability, according to a common thread in foreign media analyses. Bloomberg assessed, "By showing conciliatory gestures toward the United States, China has bought time to focus on the issues most important to it—Taiwan, technological upgrading, and strengthening Indo-Pacific influence."
The WSJ analyzed that the recent U.S.-China dynamic is approaching the "strategic stalemate" China wants (a state in which U.S. pressure is kept at a manageable level and time is gained to catch up). The WSJ said, "What Xi needs most is time," adding, "With China's economy battling a slowdown in growth, this deal provides stability to China's economy. It allows China to focus on internal vulnerabilities."
Foreign media were split on who won the summit. In a column, Bloomberg said, "The White House is dressing up the outcome as a win for the United States, but the reality is different. China did not give up anything meaningful." Citing the fact that rare earth export controls were not fully scrapped but deferred for one year, it said, "If the world's No. 2 country can hold firm control over a key supply chain and catch its breath, the price China paid (such as soybeans and cooperation on fentanyl) is small."
Some also said Trump gained short-term results helpful for the midterms through the summit, while Xi secured medium-term results beneficial to industrial development. Reuters said, "The key deliverables for President Trump are progress on addressing fentanyl and expanded soybean sales to calm an angry Republican base. In return, Xi gained access to U.S. semiconductors that will enable large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure," adding, "It is an exchange of 'chips for beans,' and in this setup China has the edge."
◇ China cedes rare earths, soybeans, and TikTok but cannot address high tariffs… "a U.S. win"
Conversely, there were assessments that China yielded to U.S. pressure. Because of U.S. sanctions on Chinese tech companies, including semiconductors, China made major concessions by giving up on rare earths and soybeans, among other items. Rare earths have been China's biggest bargaining chip in trade talks and the factor that has most unsettled the United States, and analysts said it was encouraging that the export controls were deferred with the specific period of "one year."
Soybeans also came with specific purchase volumes. Secretary Bessent said China would resume purchases of a "substantial" amount of soybeans, adding that China would import 12 million tons of U.S. soybeans by Jan. next year and at least 25 million tons annually for the following three years. Soybean farmers are a representative Republican stronghold. Trump and Republicans had worried that China's halt of U.S. soybean purchases would undermine support. The United States faces midterm elections in Nov. next year.
China also stepped back on the sale of the U.S. operations of TikTok, the Chinese short-video app, after protracted negotiations. Secretary Bessent said the Chinese government had given final approval for the sale and that "the sale process will proceed in a few weeks or months."
Meanwhile, the issue of further extending the soon-to-expire U.S.-China "super-high tariff deferral" period was not addressed at the summit, leaving the spark of high tariffs that the United States has warned it will impose on China still alive. The Financial Times (FT) warned, "The existing trade truce is set to expire next month. There is a risk that tariffs exceeding 100% will be restored."