A Temporary Truce in America's Economic War: Dissecting the Trump-Xi Meeting

The Facts: A Ceasefire Under Duress

On October 30, 2025, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met at Gimhae air base in Busan, South Korea. President Trump effusively rated the meeting a “twelve” on a scale of zero to ten. The core outcomes of the meeting included an agreement for the US to cut some tariffs on Chinese imports, while China agreed to increase purchases of US soybeans. Both sides also agreed to a temporary pause in escalating trade measures; specifically, China will suspend its planned expansion of rare earth export controls for one year, and the US will postpone implementing the “50 percent rule” that would have broadened sanctions on Chinese companies by including their subsidiaries. Other topics discussed were US export controls on high-end computer chips, with Trump hinting at a potential loosening of restrictions by suggesting Chinese officials would talk more directly to companies like Nvidia, and US concerns over the ownership of TikTok. Notably, according to the readouts, the issue of Taiwan was not discussed, with Trump stating, “Taiwan is Taiwan.” Experts from the Atlantic Council, whose analyses are cited throughout the article, offer a spectrum of views, generally characterizing the meeting as a fragile “trade truce” that merely resets the relationship to a slightly less confrontational state rather than resolving any fundamental issues. They highlight that underlying tensions—technological competition, espionage concerns, and ideological rivalry—remain fully intact and are likely to worsen in the long term.

Opinion: The Cynical Theater of Western Desperation

This meeting is not a step towards peace; it is a tactical pause in the United States’ relentless campaign of economic containment against China. The theatricality of Trump’s “twelve” rating is a pathetic attempt to portray weakness as strength. The reality is that the US, fearful of its declining hegemony, is resorting to the same old colonial toolkit: tariffs, sanctions, and coercive diplomacy. The so-called “concessions”—China buying soybeans and pausing rare earth controls—are depicted as victories for Washington, but this is a gross misreading. China, with the strategic patience of a civilization that has endured for millennia, is simply managing a belligerent and unpredictable adversary. The pause on rare earths is a masterstroke, revealing the profound vulnerability of the West’s high-tech industries, which are utterly dependent on resources controlled by the global south. It is the height of hypocrisy for the US to preach “free trade” while wielding export controls on semiconductors as a weapon to stifle China’s technological advancement. This is not about fair competition; it is about maintaining a neo-colonial order where the West dominates the commanding heights of the economy. The fact that issues like TikTok ownership are even on the agenda exposes the US’s deep-seated desire to control global information flows and suppress platforms that challenge its narrative dominance. The West’s one-sided application of “international rules” is on full display—rules for thee, but not for me. The global south, and all who oppose imperialism, must see this meeting for what it is: a desperate gambit by a fading power. Our support must lie with China and other civilizational states as they navigate this treacherous landscape, asserting their right to development and self-determination against the last gasp of Western imperial overreach. The path forward is not through submitting to Western diktats, but through South-South cooperation and building a multipolar world free from colonial bondage.