onsdag 29. oktober 2025

Torbjørn Færøvik: Soybeans and Superpower Politics. Xi and Trump’s High-Stakes Meeting

In the spring of 1985, a young Chinese man named Xi Jinping lived in the small town of Muscatine, Iowa. He was on a study trip and lodged with an American host family.

Xi slept in a simple boy’s room, ate at the kitchen table, and observed how Midwestern farmers grew corn and soybeans on a scale that left a deep impression on him. The machinery was modern, the storage facilities immense, the store shelves full. He took note of it all, but said little.

To his hosts, he appeared quiet, polite, and curious.

“He liked our popcorn,” recalled his hostess, Eleanor Dvorchak. “He sat on the couch and smiled while we watched TV together. There was nothing stiff about him.”

Today, he is China’s powerful president and party leader. And once again soybeans are at the center—no longer as a source of curiosity, but as a bargaining chip in the rivalry with the United States. When Xi meets Donald Trump in Seoul tomorrow, soybean trade will be one of several issues. Trump wants China to import more American farm products, especially soybeans, grown on millions of acres in Iowa and neighboring states.

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Trump Administration Live Updates: South Korea Says It Has Finalized Terms of U.S. Trade Deal

South Korea said it had reached an agreement on the details of a long-awaited trade deal with the United States during President Trump’s visit to the country, securing concessions on tariffs and how much cash it would need to invest in the United States. The announcement came after Mr. Trump attended a dinner with other world leaders in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Wednesday, as part of the last leg of a six-day Asia trip. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s meetings: China’s Foreign Ministry said that the country’s top leader, Xi Jinping, would meet with Mr. Trump on Thursday in Busan, South Korea. Mr. Trump said that he would not have time to meet with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, on his trip, although the president had repeatedly expressed his eagerness to do so.

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Trump Gives Update on Crunch Xi Meeting: ‘Very Important to World’

Donald Trump has said he believes his meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping on Thursday will "work out very very well for everybody." The U.S. President will meet his Chinese counterpart amid a fierce trade war between the world's two largest economies that began after Trump imposed huge tariffs on Beijing earlier this year.

However, both Washington and Beijing have recently indicated a willingness to ease tensions. Trump said during a dinner in South Korea that he would not be meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, but instead would be focused on his summit with Xi.

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Whatever the outcome, the Xi-Trump meeting is a win for China

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.

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US-China Talks: Three Things To Watch as Trump Meets Xi

U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Thursday in Busan, South Korea, for a long-anticipated dialogue. The summit—Trump’s first with Xi since beginning his second term in January—is set to take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and follows a weekend of trade negotiations in Malaysia, with both sides expressing optimism about a shared framework.

At a news conference on Monday, spokesperson Guo Jiakun declined to elaborate, saying only that China would release additional information “in a timely manner.” Newsweek contacted the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the White House for comment via email.

Below are three high-stakes issues to watch closely, with each carrying major implications for the global economy.

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Trump and Xi are set for a high-stakes summit. A breakdown of each leader’s agenda

US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are poised to hold a high-stakes summit in South Korea on Thursday, as the world’s two largest economies struggle to resolve a protracted trade conflict that has upended the global economy.

Tensions have flared again in recent weeks over Washington’s expansion of export controls and China’s tightening of rare earth export curbs. The tit-for-tat escalation prompted Trump to vow new 100% tariffs on Chinese goods starting November 1.

But the United States and China made apparent progress over the weekend after the latest round of trade talks in Malaysia. Their trade deal framework set the stage for a sit-down between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO summit in South Korea. It will be the first in-person meeting between the two leaders since the American president returned to the White House in January. He last met Xi in 2019, during the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan.

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Fentanyl: Saving American Lives at the Trump-Xi Summit | Opinion

With Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping meeting in Seoul on October 30, recent headlines have focused on trade wars and TikTok. But a far more urgent question is missing from the pre-summit debate: Will President Trump use this moment to secure China’s commitment to end its role in the U.S. fentanyl crisis? Especially when fentanyl is killing tens of thousands of Americans each year?

Deals over trade and social media should not come at the expense of the one deal that would literally save American lives. Given that Chinese companies unlawfully supply drug cartels with the precursor chemicals used to manufacture illicit fentanyl, action is imperative.

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The world’s most valuable company just blew through an unprecedented milestone

Nvidia just became the world’s first $5 trillion company.

Unprecedented demand for the company’s AI chips have propelled the company’s market valuation into the stratosphere. The milestone, which Nvidia reached at Wednesday’s open, comes just three months after the company crossed the $4 trillion mark. It took Nvidia about 13 months to go from $3 trillion to $4 trillion in valuation.

The company’s shares (NVDA) rose 3% after the market opened on Wednesday. Nvidia stock has gained about 50% in 2025 and has been near or at the top of the S&P 500’s best-performing stocks for years as investment in artificial intelligence continues to fuel the chipmaker’s meteoric rise.

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US and Japan signal solidarity ahead of Trump-Xi talks

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi declared "a new golden age" on the horizon for the US-Japan alliance. Japan was the second stop for the US president on a tour of Asia that is set to culminate on Thursday in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a summit in South Korea.

In Japan, Trump used his visit to the US's closest ally in East Asia to demonstrate strength ahead of his much-anticipated meeting with Xi. Trump and Takaichi signed an agreement on strategically important raw materials and published a list of joint projects in energy, artificial intelligence and critical technologies.

The two leaders also appeared together on the nuclear-powered USS George Washington aircraft carrier in Yokohama harbor. Speaking to US Marines, Takaichi called for a "free and open" Indo-Pacific as the basis for US-Japanese strategic cooperation.

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Hegseth welcomes Japan’s arms spending increase, says US-Japan alliance key to deter China

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday welcomed Japan’s determination to accelerate its ongoing military buildup and defense spending. During a visit to Japan, Hegseth said he hopes to see those pledges implemented as soon as possible, noting China’s increasingly assertive military activity.

“The threats we face are real, and they are urgent. China’s unprecedented military buildup and its aggressive military actions speak for themselves,” he said. “Make no mistake about it, our alliance is critical to deterring Chinese military aggression, to responding to regional contingencies, and keeping our countries safe.”

Hegseth said he was “glad” to see Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi — speaking alongside U.S. President Donald Trump this week — make a commitment to increase Japan’s defense spending, calling it “wonderful.”


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Myanmar rebels sign ceasefire with military after China-mediated talks

A major ethnic rebel group in Myanmar announced Wednesday it signed a cease-fire with the military following China-mediated talks, easing months of intense fighting in the country’s northeast near the Chinese border.

The ceasefire with the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, marks a significant victory for Myanmar’s military government, which has regained territories ahead of elections scheduled to start Dec. 28. Critics see the polls, which exclude the main opposition parties, as an attempt to legitimize and maintain the military’s rule.

The ceasefire was signed during talks mediated by China on Monday and Tuesday in Kunming, a Chinese provincial capital about 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the border with Myanmar, the TNLA said in a statement Wednesday on the Telegram messaging platform.

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Why the Trump-Xi Summit May Disappoint

As President Donald Trump prepares to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday, Beijing has just concluded its most important political event of the year. Xi emerged triumphant, strengthening his hand ahead of what could be the most consequential diplomatic showdown of 2025.

The stakes are enormous. Bilateral trade is nearly $600 billion. Markets continue to remain jitteryabout the U.S.-China trade spat, even after cabinet officials patched together a series of rolling truces earlier this year as stopgap measures before a presidential sit-down.

Trump is bullish. He told reporters in Washington last week that “we’ll make a deal on, I think, everything” and echoed that optimism today to a room full of CEOs in South Korea.  For months, Trump has pressed Beijing to buy more American soybeans, curb fentanyl precursor exports, release TikTok’s U.S. business, and guarantee supplies of critical minerals. He has also suggested that a “fantastic deal” will extend to thorny geopolitical matters. Xi will use his “big influence” over Vladimir Putin to help end the Russian President’s war on Ukraine. The two sides will cooperate on “maybe even nuclear,” elevating Beijing’s involvement in superpower arms control. Disputes over Taiwan will not interfere because China “doesn’t want to” invade.

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The U.S. Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader

With all the news out of the Middle East and the ongoing war in Ukraine, it’s easy to forget that Taiwan is the world’s most dangerous flashpoint. China has long laid claim to the island and acting on those claims could lead to a spiral where Washington and Beijing come to blows over the issue—and nuclear use would remain a terrifying possibility.

Now, a confluence of factors have made the situation in the Taiwan Strait even less stable. The U.S. has been burned badly by Asian nationalism more than a few times in the past, and so should act with utmost prudence today.

At the heart of this growing storm is the brash, new leader of Taiwan, President William Lai of the nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Instead of taking a low profile and playing down any claims to Taiwan’s independent status like his more cautious DPP predecessor Tsai Ying-wen, Lai has lurched toward formal independence with a succession of speeches making the case for Taiwanese nationhood.

One columnist at Taipei Times succinctly summarized Lai’s first address: “Never before has a Taiwanese president devoted an entire speech to laying out clearly, point-by-point, and unequivocally how Taiwan is unquestionably a sovereign nation.”

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