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US-China relations
Opinion
SCMP Editorial
SCMP Editorial

Editorial | Xi-Trump summit breakthroughs are a net positive for China

With the US president finalising a trip to Beijing in April, it is hoped that both sides have the political will to keep relations stable

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US President Donald Trump speaks to Chinese President Xi Jinping following their meeting at the Naraemaru reception hall inside an air force base in Busan, South Korea, on October 30. Photo: EPA/Yonhap South Korea
SCMP Editorial
Relations between the world’s two biggest economies urgently need to be stabilised. Not for the first time has it taken a face-to-face meeting between leaders to try to keep them on track. Thursday’s summit in South Korea between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump reins in a sustained escalation of trade and political tensions. They made breakthroughs on some thorny bilateral issues.
“We have a deal,” Trump proclaimed afterwards. The world will be relieved if the deal clears the way for a more stable, predictable geopolitical environment. It has to be welcomed as a significant breakthrough, considering how fraught relations have become under the Trump administration’s escalation of the trade war with tariffs and tech export curbs.
Overall, the summit is a positive result for China that meets realistic expectations, given the deep and structural bilateral issues. Trump has backed down again from his threat of 100 per cent additional tariffs on China over curbs on rare earth exports, which removes a big source of uncertainty and potential risk for markets.
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A tariff intended to combat fentanyl trafficking to the United States will be reduced from 20 to 10 per cent; this includes Hong Kong and Macau. On other issues, such as shipping and port restrictions, they agreed to suspend the measures for a year – a truce that could help cooler heads prevail. The language on US chip exports and Chinese rare earth exports is vague – it is not surprising that such complex issues cannot be quickly resolved.

Trump finalised his proposed visit to Beijing in April. This is very important. He probably will want to wait until then to reveal more deals – if the two sides can reach them. Hopefully, it means that until April there will be political will on both sides to keep things stable.

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Taiwan was not mentioned, at least in public. That is good for Beijing, which is under no illusion that the US and Western countries will support it over Taiwan. The best it can hope for is that they will largely leave the Taiwan issue to Beijing, to be treated as China’s own affair. In the past, the US president mentioned Taiwan partly as a political gesture and partly as an example for other Western countries. Now, if Trump drops the topic – at least in public – it will make it harder for other Western countries to raise it with Beijing. That is a plus for China.

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