For Chinese leader Xi Jinping, a landmark meeting with Donald Trump expected this week is a moment to showcase something Beijing has long sought: China standing as an equal to the United States on the global stage.
The US president’s trade war against China has challenged Xi’s drive for growth and innovation, but it’s also given Beijing the unintended gift of a bright spotlight under which to flex its economic strength.
As much of the rest of the world scrambled to flatter Trump and negotiate down global tariffs he unleashed this spring, China fought back with its own measures – until both sides were forced to the table for a truce. In recent weeks, after US rules hit China’s access to American technology and targeted its shipping industry, Beijing fired back by announcing a sweeping expansion of export controls on critical rare earth minerals – a move that rattled Washington and pushed Trump to threaten to pile an additional 100% tariffs on Chinese goods.
Both sides have appeared to climb down from that latest escalation following eleventh-hour trade talks between top negotiators this weekend in Malaysia.
Xi and Trump are now set to meet on the sidelines of an international summit in South Korea Thursday – their first face-to-face meeting of Trump’s second term, where they’re expected to agree to a framework for managing their economic ties.
It’s not yet clear what each side has agreed to concede to get to that point – and this is just one touchstone in a complex and volatile competition between superpowers. Current US tariffs on Chinese goods – which stand at upwards of 50% on average – are putting pressure on the country’s already slowing economy, and those could more than double if the two leaders can’t find common ground.
But as US officials tout Trump’s ability to “create leverage” to pressure China, over on Beijing’s half of the split-screen, China, too, sees success in its strategy.
There, the common sense is that China is ready for this contest: it’s created natural leverage through its strategic dominance over the global rare earths supply chain; it’s diversified trade to become less dependent on the US market and it’s been pushing to accelerate innovation that would allow it to wean off American goods like high-end semi-conductors.
Beijing was “fully prepared” for how Trump might act toward China when he started his second term, according to Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University in Beijing.
Source: Here
