Reuters
Donald Trump arrives in Kuala Lumpur as he kicks off a tour of Asia.
US President Donald Trump has arrived in Asia for a whirlwind week of diplomacy, which includes a much-anticipated meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
Top of the agenda will be trade – an area where tensions between the world’s two biggest economies have once again been ramping up.
Trump landed in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, as a summit for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, begins on Sunday. He will then visit Japan and finally South Korea, where the White House says he will meet Xi.
So what are the wins Trump and other leaders are hoping for, and what are the pitfalls?
Our correspondents explain what you should know about the week ahead.
For Trump, China is the key
By Anthony Zurcher, North America correspondent
Inking new trade deals that provide opportunities to American businesses while keeping the tariff revenue flowing into the US Treasury is sure to be a central focus of Trump’s Asia trip.
While there are multiple players in the global trade dance, the key to Trump’s success or failure is China. And Trump’s scheduled meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of Apec – the first since 2019 – could set the course for US-China relations for the rest of Trump’s second term in office.
As the US president has acknowledged, draconian tariffs on Chinese imports are unsustainable. And while he has not explicitly said so, an escalating economic war with America’s largest trading partner would have devastating consequences – for the US, for China and for the rest of the world.
The steep tumbles in the major US stock indexes every time China and the US appear at an impasse underlines this reality.
When he heads back to America next week, Trump is sure to be pleased if he is able to finalise a deal with South Korea and secure new Japanese investment in US manufacturing.
But his top priority is sure to be convincing Xi to resume purchases of American agricultural exports, loosen recent restrictions on foreign access to Chinese rare earth materials, give US companies greater access to the Chinese market and avoid a full-blown trade war.
For Trump, as the saying goes, that’s the whole ballgame.
Xi’s long game
By Laura Bicker, China correspondent
When Chinese leader Xi Jinping meets Trump on 30 October in South Korea, he wants to be the tougher negotiator.
That is why he has been leveraging China’s stranglehold on rare earths, the minerals without which you cannot make semiconductors, weapons systems, cars or even smartphones. It’s a US weakness, and China is exploiting it – just like it is hurting American farmers, and Trump’s rural vote base, by not buying their soybeans.
Xi has also learned lessons from Trump 1.0 and this time, Beijing, it appears, is willing to embrace the pain of tariffs. For one, the US, which once took in a fifth of Chinese exports, is no longer such a crucial market.
Getty Images
Trump’s tariffs on imports to the US will be at the top of the agenda in every meeting this week
Still Xi has a balance to strike, between an economic battle with the US, and his struggle with domestic challenges. And Washington knows about Xi’s troubles: high youth unemployment, a real estate crisis, mounting local government debt and a population unwilling to spend.
Analysts believe China may
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