'12 out of 10' U.S.-China summit results in fragile truce

At their first face-to-face meeting in six years, Xi and Trump struck a temporary deal easing trade and tariff tensions, but doubts remain about its durability

Welcome back to What’s Happening in China, your weekly China brief.

At a 90-minute U.S.-China meeting in Busan this week—which U.S. President Donald Trump rated as a ‘12 out of 10’—Chinese leader Xi Jinping said “the two sides should think big and recognize the long-term benefit of cooperation, and must not fall into a vicious cycle of mutual retaliation,” and that they had “reached consensus on solving various issues.”

At their first face-to-face meeting in six years, Beijing agreed to suspend rare earth export controls for a year, resume soybean purchases, and continue efforts to stop the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals. Washington agreed to immediately lower fentanyl-related tariffs on China to 10% from 20%, allow the sale of computer chips (excluding Nvidia’s next-generation Blackwell AI chip), and delay by a year the expansion of tech export restrictions on Chinese firms with 50% or greater ownership by blacklisted entities.

Both parties also agreed on a one-year pause on port fees for each other’s ships.

According to Trump, the war in Ukraine was also discussed, while the topic of Taiwan “never came up.” TikTok’s U.S. operations were not mentioned either.

Still, doubts remain about the durability of this détente. In a conversation with Sinocism’s Bill Bishop this week,

Rush Doshi

, C.V. Starr senior fellow for Asia studies and director of the China Strategy Initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations, cautioned: “When I look at the choreography as someone who wasn’t involved in it, it does feel a bit more chaotic, a little bit more disorganized, which means, for all your listeners, the big question is always: we think we know what the deal was, both sides think that they know what the deal was, [but] was there really mutual understanding?”

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Let’s jump into it.

— PC

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Through the Lens

View of the Forbidden City in Beijing.

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In Focus

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping emerged from a high-stakes meeting touting agreements on tariffs and export controls that amount to a tangible de-escalation of the contentious trade war between the two superpowers.

But many details about what was achieved remain unclear, while other key sticking points in the U.S.-China trade relationship appear not to have come up at all. The overall U.S. tariff rate on Chinese imports, meanwhile, will stay at a historically high level.

The agreements struck during the meeting in Busan, South Korea, do not amount to a comprehensive trade deal — though Trump claimed after the meeting that one would be ready to sign “pretty soon.”

He nevertheless hailed the summit with Xi as “amazing,” and rated it a 12 out of 10.

It was the two leaders’ first face-to-face meeting in six years. They spoke for one hour and 40 minutes.

Read: Trump cuts fentanyl tariffs on China to 10% as Beijing delays rare earth curbs (CNBC)

Related:

• How Xi Walked Away From Trump Trade Talks Looking Stronger (The New York Times)

• Xi-Trump meeting sparks optimism in China — but many wonder what comes next (CNBC)

• China Can Fight a Trade War, but Its Real Test Is Growth Reform (Council on Foreign Relations)

• Trump Is Rebuilding the U.S.-China Relationship His Way (WSJ)

• Trump and Xi won’t reset the China–US rivalry, so other nations must prepare (Chatham House)

• Asia ASAP: Trump and Xi Meet in Busan (

  Asia Society Policy Institute
  )

• China eyes export ban exemption for some Nexperia orders amid chip supply chain turmoil (SCMP)