President Donald Trump says he had a “truly great meeting” with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
“There is enormous respect between our two Countries, and that will only be enhanced with what just took place. We agreed on many things, with others, even of high importance, being very close to resolved,” Trump wrote on social media early Thursday morning following the meeting between the two world leaders in South Korea.
Tariffs on China will be lowered by 10% to 47% following the meeting, Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
The U.S. has placed a number of tariffs on Chinese goods in 2025, and Trump had threatened to impose a 100% tariff on China beginning Nov. 1, but will no longer do so.
“I would say on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12,” Trump told reporters on Thursday morning.
The results of the meeting are evidence of the way “Trump has been moving away from America’s decades-long misguided feel-good engagement with [Chinese Communist Party]-driven China,” Anthony Kim, editor of the Index of Economic Freedom at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal.
“He has been renovating/reconstructing the relationship/engagement with Beijing on his MAGA terms,” Kim said of Trump.
Soybean Purchases
Trump reports that Xi agreed during the meeting that China will again purchase farm products from the U.S., including soybeans and sorghum.
High tariffs and tense trade relations between the U.S. and China resulted in China largely halting its purchasing of American soybeans in 2025, affecting U.S. farmers significantly.
Discussing the soybean deal on Fox Business Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said China will buy 12 million metric tons of soybeans between now and January and has also agreed to purchase about 25 million metric tons of soybeans annually from the U.S. for the next three years.
Energy and Rare Earth Minerals
China has further agreed to “continue the flow of Rare Earth, Critical Minerals, Magnets, etc., openly and freely,” according to Trump. Rare earth minerals are used in everything from smartphones to flat-screen TVs, and about 70% of the world’s rare earths come from China.
“China also agreed that they will begin the process of purchasing American Energy. In fact, a very large-scale transaction may take place concerning the purchase of Oil and Gas from the Great State of Alaska,” Trump said.
The Trump administration’s “energy team,” along with Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, “will be meeting to see if such an Energy Deal can be worked out,” Trump said.
“Although China has promised to continue the flow of critical minerals, the Chinese Communist Party has a history of breaking its promises,” Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment, told The Daily Signal.
“This agreement should not stop the United States from expanding and expediting permits for mining for critical and rare earth minerals at home, and renewing our relationship with Canada, which also has these minerals,” Furchtgott-Roth added.
Fentanyl Crisis
Trump and Xi also discussed the fentanyl crisis, and “China has strongly stated that they will work diligently with us to stop the flow of Fentanyl into our Country,” according to the president, who added, “They will help us end the Fentanyl Crisis.”
More than 48,000 Americans died from synthetic opioid—mainly, fentanyl—poisonings and overdoses in 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl flow out of China to South and Central America before making their way into the U.S.
Ahead of Trump’s meeting with Xi, author and China expert Gordon Chang told The Daily Signal the conversation on fentanyl was the one he was watching most closely.
Chang said he will be leery of any pledges from Xi to address the flow of fentanyl chemicals out of China because “Xi Jinping promised to stop the flow of fentanyl in 2016. That was a promise to President [Barack] Obama. And in 2018, he promised that to Trump. And in 2023, he promised it to [President Joe] Biden.”
What’s Next
Pointing to little significant change in the stock market Thursday morning, Michael Pillsbury, a leading author and expert on China, said the public understands that the immediate outcomes of Trump’s meeting with Xi are “promises rather than actual contracts for soybeans, or actual energy purchases from Alaska, or actual steps taken to fight fentanyl.”
The new 47% tariff rate is “still pretty high,” he said, adding, “I think the implication is China can earn reduced tariffs by action on these various areas. That’s a good approach.”
Trump’s meeting with Xi in South Korea was his final stop on a nearly weekly trip to Asia that also included stops in Japan and Malaysia.
