Trump to Meet With Chinese Leader Xi Jinping in 1 Week

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Oct. 23 that President Donald Trump will meet with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping on Oct. 30.

The meeting will come after Trump has spoken to several heads of state in the region, and will cover several hot-button issues, including soybean trade, fentanyl, rare earths, and tariffs.

There, he will oversee the signing of a peace deal between Thailand and Cambodia on the first day of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit. Trump will also meet with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and join an ASEAN working dinner on Oct. 26.

On Oct. 27, Trump will travel to Japan, and the next day, he will meet with Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Sanae Takaichi.

On Oct. 29, Trump will fly to Busan, South Korea, and meet with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. He will also deliver the keynote speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO gathering and later participate in a U.S.–APEC leaders working dinner.

Trump’s meeting with Xi is scheduled to take place the next day, and will be the last event on his schedule before he returns to Washington.

Trump has signaled high expectations from the upcoming meeting with Xi, saying at a White House press briefing on Oct. 22 that he wants a “deal on everything.”

He has said he wants China to commit to buying soybeans, curbing exports of fentanyl precursor chemicals, and fair trading terms, including on rare earths.

Trump pointed out that China is paying 55 percent tariffs and that number would go up to 155 percent on Nov. 1 unless they strike a fair deal, dismissing Beijing’s hold on critical minerals as significant leverage. He has said that when China issued its restrictions, he received many calls from people about rare earth supply opportunities.

On Oct. 20, Trump met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and announced a critical minerals deal.

“In about a year from now, we'll have so much critical mineral and rare earths that you won’t know what to do with them,” Trump said on Oct. 20.

Trump added that tariffs are the most effective countermeasure, but there are others, like export controls on aircraft components, for which China is reliant on U.S. companies.

“At a certain point, they will not be able to do any business with us. At a certain point, if they pay enough tariffs, it’s almost like saying ‘We don’t want to do business with you,’ ... and if they don’t do business with us, I think China’s in big trouble,” he said.

He added that the United States followed through on its threat of stopping exports of aircraft parts when Beijing made its initial rare earth restrictions threat, and that caused China to “close down over 400 of their airplanes.”

“But we don’t want to do that,” he said. “I want to be good to China.”

Trump said he has a “pretty long meeting scheduled” with Xi and expected to be able to work out all the bilateral issues.

“We can work out a lot of our questions and our doubts and our tremendous assets together,” he said.

“I think we'll end up with a very strong trade deal, both of us will be happy.”

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