China says Xi, Trump to meet in South Korea on Oct 30

BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet US President Donald Trump in South Korea on Oct 30, setting up a widely anticipated encounter that traders and investors on both sides of the Pacific hope will ease months of trade tensions.

“The two heads of state will have in-depth communications on strategic and long-term issues,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Oct 29, without making a direct reference to the trade deal the leaders of the world’s two largest economies are expected to agree on while in the port city of Busan.

“We are willing to make joint efforts with the United States to promote the positive results of this meeting and provide new guidance and impetus for the stable development of China-US relations,” Mr Guo added.

Mr Trump, earlier on Oct 29, said that he and Mr Xi were going to achieve “a good deal” for the two countries, aboard Air Force One en route to South Korea.

Expectations that Mr Trump and Mr Xi would meet have helped stabilise markets over the past month, after renewed tensions raised fears that the two leaders might walk away from talks aimed at resolving a tariff war that has upended global supply chains.

Washington has blamed the trade war escalation on

Beijing’s new rare earth export controls

, while China maintains it stemmed from the US further limiting Chinese firms’ ability to invest in America.

Mr Xi will be in South Korea from Oct 30 to Nov 1 for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting and a state visit to the country.

Mr Trump will not attend the regional summit meeting.

Washington and Beijing are also at loggerheads over fentanyl flows, high-end chips, rare earth controls and soybeans.

China’s state-owned Cofco bought three US soybean cargoes ahead of the talks, trade sources said, the country’s first purchases from 2025’s US harvest, and a move analysts said likely represented a goodwill gesture ahead of the talks. REUTERS