US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, scheduled for 31 October–1 November in Seoul.
This marks the first gesture of appeasement since the US launched a trade war in April that was met with a confrontational stance from China, hitting both economies. It would also be the first meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies since 2019, during Trump’s first term.
The two leaders are expected to discuss their ongoing trade war, the fentanyl crisis – which Trump links to illegal Chinese shipments to the United States – Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the approval of the sale of TikTok’s US operations, according to a post by Trump on his Truth Social account. The meeting was also confirmed by the Chinese Embassy in the US on X.
Since April’s “Liberation Day“, the two economic titans have been targeting each other’s economies with tariffs, restrictions and bans. Just two days ago, US chip designer Nvidia was hit with a fresh ban from the Chinese Cyberspace Administration over its sought-after AI-enabling chips.
US-China talks earlier this week suggested a framework for selling ByteDance’s US TikTok operations is in place, though details have not been made public. According to the Wall Street Journal (19 September), US cloud provider Oracle, venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz and private equity firm Silver Lake Management could be involved in the deal.
Any deal would see the creation of a board dominated by Americans, the White House said Saturday.
“There will be seven seats on the board that controls the app in the United States, and six of those seats will be Americans,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News.
She said a deal could be signed “in the coming days.”
Following Trump’s call for US allies to punish countries aiding Russian leader Vladimir Putin in dodging sanctions over the Ukraine war, the EU is set to target a dozen Chinese firms in its next sanctions package.
updating with comment from White House press secretary
(aw)
