A day after US President Donald Trump returned to Washington after Xi Jinping, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which brought together both leaders in South Korea, has been partially decaffeinated. In the absence of the American tycoon, the vacuum has been filled by the Chinese president. And on the opening day of the summit, this Friday, Xi turned his opening speech into a plea in favor of free trade. “Must […] “We must strive for open development in which we all share opportunities and win,” he said in the city of Gyeongju, the ancient medieval capital of Korea. “We must promote universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization.”
The leaders met on Thursday for just over an hour and a half at the airport in the South Korean city of Busan: just before Trump left the country, and immediately after Xi landed to begin his trip.
A day later, the Chinese president has asked the economies of Asia-Pacific to work together to safeguard the multilateral trading system and protect institutions such as the WTO. And he has proposed “an update of international economic and trade rules to reflect changing times.”
His speech contrasts with Trump’s harsh tone and boastful words in recent days of his Asian tour. During the journey, the tycoon has signed or outlined Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. “Literally, hundreds of billions, trillions have come into our country in the last four days,” he said during the trip, aboard Air Force One.
On Wednesday, Trump managed to close a trade pact with South Korea, by which this country agrees to invest up to $350 billion in the United States in exchange for a reduction in tariffs. Tokyo, similar to Seoul, committed in the summer to invest $550 billion in the United States in exchange for tariffs remaining at 15%, below the 25% initially announced by Trump. During his visit to Japan this week, the Republican proclaimed a “new golden era” in the bilateral relationship, and signed a cooperation agreement to support the supply of critical minerals and rare earths, with the end of .
In another symbolic twist of script, Xi is scheduled this Friday for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the summit with Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, a country with which relations have been marked in recent years. But the current struggle between Ottawa and Washington, which leaves room to restart ties with Beijing. The fact that the meeting is taking place is an eloquent sign of what Trump is achieving with his global tariff attacks.
Xi is also scheduled to meet with the Japanese Prime Minister, as announced by the Japanese Government, according to the Japanese agency Kyodo.
With the hangover of the entente in Busan, one day after the pact reached between the United States and China, the time for analysts has arrived. Beyond the technical details—truce in practically all reciprocal tariffs and suspension of the rare earth export mechanism for one year, among other things—several observers read the meeting as a partial success for China, which chose to fight face to face the trade battle launched by Trump.
“The Busan meeting justified China’s strategy of taking proportional retaliation against US provocations and the effective use of rare earths as leverage,” comment Trivium China analysts in a bulletin published in the heat of the truce, in which they celebrate the reduction in tensions. But they consider that the underlying problems between the giants have not been resolved: “Despite the pats on the back and the handshakes, China’s long-term strategy with respect to the United States has not changed one bit.” And they predict possible tensions when the negotiating teams begin to detail the agreements.
“It is good news that Beijing has agreed to postpone the application of the drastic restrictions on the export of rare earths that it had recently announced, but we must expect it to use this threat as a hammer on the head of the United States, which will make US tariff threats less credible and more costly in the future,” also interprets Wendy Cutler, of the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, in a note for subscribers.
