AsianFin -- U.S. President Donald Trump is going to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week after a new round of trade talks between senior officials of the two countries, a White House spokesperson suggested on Thursday.
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Trump is scheduled to meet with Xi Jinping on next Thursday, October 30, in a bilateral meeting that will be part of a multi-country trip to Asia, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
"On Thursday morning local time, President Trump will participate in a bilateral meeting with President Xi of the People's Republic of China, before departing to return home," Leavitt said at a briefing on Thursday.
Trump during his Asian trip will also be meeting with leaders from South Korea, Malaysia, and Japan--with its new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, said Leavitt.
Leavitt’s remarks confirmed Trump-Xi talks will take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) annual meeting, which is set to be held from October 31 to November 1 in Gyeongju, South Korea. It will be Trump’s first face-to-face meeting with Xi since he took office this year.
Trump later Thursday expressed optimism about Xi talks. "I think we're going to come out very well, and everyone's going to be very happy," he said. He also said the first question that he would ask Xi is about fentanyl, stressing “I’m putting it right at the front of the list.”
Fentanly, rare earths and soybeans are among a list of demands for China that Trump floated on Sunday. “I don’t want them to play the rare earth game with us,” Trump said on Air Force One. He indicated he is seeking to secure China’s resumption of soybean purchases, and said the U.S. wanted China to stop with the fentanyl, indicating Beijing should help end the flow of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids from China to the U.S.
Earlier Thursday, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) confirmed the latest schedule of meeting with U.S. counterparts.
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, will lead a delegation to Malaysia from Oct. 24 to 27 to hold economic and trade consultations with the U.S. side, the ministry announced.
The two sides will hold consultations on important issues in China-U.S. economic and trade ties in accordance with the important consensus reached by heads of the two countries during their phone calls this year, a ministry spokesperson said when asked about further news following the recent call between He and U.S. officials.
He held a video call on Saturday with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, during which the two sides agreed to hold a new round of economic and trade consultations as soon as possible, the state news agency Xinhua reported.
The two sides held candid, in-depth, and constructive exchanges on implementing the important consensus reached by the two heads of state during their phone talks since the start of this year and key issues in bilateral economic and trade relations, Xinhua reported.
Trump on September 19 disclosed he agreed with Xi during a phone call that day that two leaders would meet at the APEC annual meeting in South Korea. Earlier this month, Trump threatened to cancel the meeting, and warned he would impose an additional 100% tariffs and software export controls on China as the retaliation for Beijing's recent rare earth export controls.
The United States will impose an additional 100% Tariff on Chinese imports, starting on November 1 or sooner, depending on any further actions or changes taken by China, and export controls on “any and all critical software” will go into effect on November 1, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on October 10. “I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” Trump wrote.
Trump later that day denied the planned meeting with Xi had been dropped. “But I don’t know that we’re going to have it,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’m going to be there regardless, so I would assume we might have it.” Senior Trump administration officials including Bessent since then repeated the schedule of Trump-Xi talks on the sidelines of the APEC summit.
Bessent last Friday said Chinese Vice Premier He will meet with him in Malaysia to prepare for Trump and Xi’s meeting. The Treasury chief described the call as frank and detailed discussions and regarding trade between the United States and China. He reaffirmed plans of in-person meeting with He this week to continue their discussion.
