Weeks before his trip to China, President Donald Trump was already predicting on social media that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, would “give me a big, fat hug when I get there.”

But Beijing’s deep economic ties to Iran, as well as trade tensions over tariff threats stretching back to Trump’s first term, could crimp the good feelings when Trump flies to Beijing this week — even though the Republican president has for years effusively praised Xi, making it clear he sees China’s leader as a competitor strong enough to warrant his respect and admiration.

Trump isn’t fond of long plane rides or extended stretches away from the White House or his properties in Florida and New Jersey. He is expected to only spend parts of three days on the ground in China.

There will be plenty of pomp, but the grandeur is not expected to rival Trump’s first visit to China in 2017, which Beijing dubbed a “state visit-plus.”

“Even before this whole conflagration with Iran, they weren’t going to go state visit-plus like last time, just because things are tense,” said Jonathan Czin, a former director for China at the National Security Council during the Biden administration.

Xi’s ‘better understanding’ of Trump

On Trump’s first-term trip, China rolled out the red carpet for his arrival, with a band playing military music and children waving flags and chanting “Welcome.”

Xi offered a tour of the Forbidden City. Trump and first lady Melania Trump even had a private dinner there. Trump was the first foreign leader since the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949 to experience what was once reserved for emperors.

The following morning brought another welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People and featured a military parade. There also was a state banquet in Trump’s honor with video highlights from the Chinese leader’s previous visit to Florida and a clip of Trump’s granddaughter Arabella singing in Chinese.

Beijing does not offer this level of spectacle to most visiting foreign leaders. When British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the Forbidden City in January, Xi did not attend and the site remained open to the public. Starmer had to contend with tourists.

Ali Wyne, senior US-China research and advocacy adviser for the Washington non-profit the Crisis Group, said the “Chinese delegation will likely do its utmost to ensure that Trump leaves Beijing believing that he has just concluded the most extraordinary state visit of his two presidencies.”

But, he said, the “pomp and circumstance would serve a different role now than they did when he first visited Beijing” because “Xi has a much better understanding of Trump, and the administration’s own national security strategy and national defense strategy recognize China as a near-peer.”

Expectations for what gets accomplished could be lower this time, said Czin, now a fellow at the Brookings Institution.

He predicted that the Chinese may not offer major breakthroughs on trade or anything else because they are “working backward from our midterm elections” with the theory that the closer they get to Election Day “the more leverage they are going to have”.

The GOP is focused on retaining control of Congress, even as polling shows most Americans are unhappy with Trump’s economic policies and believe that the United States went too far in Iran.

Still, the White House argues that Trump’s previous firm hand with Beijing on tariffs — which the Supreme Court subsequently struck down — means the US will remain in a strong position.

“President Trump cares about results, not symbols,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said. “But even still, the president has a great relationship with President Xi, and the upcoming summit in Beijing will be both symbolically and substantively significant.”

Trump and Xi may see a lot of each other this year

Trump could meet with China’s leader four times in eight months.

After his visit to Beijing, Trump plans to host Xi at the White House. Trump might also attend the November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Shenzhen, China. And Xi could come to the Group of 20 summit the following month at Trump’s resort in Doral, Florida.

Czin noted that Xi also is not very fond of travel, meaning not all of the planned encounters may happen. He said China’s leader also does not “do personal connections” like the kind Trump relishes, noting Xi led a Chinese military purge in January that included replacing officials with long-standing personal ties to his family.

Wyne, though, said Xi also “appreciates that he is unlikely to deal with another U.S. president who admires him as greatly and embraces as narrow a view of strategic competition.”

That means Xi may “attempt to pocket as many economic and security concessions from Trump as possible,” Wyne said.

Trump has long praised Xi

Trump told The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board in 2024 that Xi “was actually a really good … I don’t want to say ‘friend.’ I don’t want to act foolish. ‘He was my friend.’ But I got along with him great.”

Trump even suggested at the time that military force might not be required to ensure that Chinese troops do not encroach on Taiwan, simply because China’s leader “respects me,” despite Trump more recently discussing potentially selling arms to Taiwan.

Trump has continued to praise the bilateral relationship since returning to the White House, even after his Beijing visit, originally scheduled for March, was postponed due to the early stages of the Iran war.

He unsuccessfully prodded China to get involved in reopening the Strait of Hormuz after Iranian forces choked it off and disrupted global economies. But China did use its leverage as the largest purchaser of Iranian oil to encourage Iran to agree to what has been a fragile ceasefire.

Beijing has strong economic ties to Tehran, and the war could hurt its economy, which was already projected to grow more slowly. If China can help establish lasting peace, though, that might boost its standing in negotiations on trade issues with the Trump administration.

Trade issues a sticking point

During his 2017 visit, Trump announced $250 billion in nonbinding trade deals, some of which never materialised. A round of trade deals announced in 2020 and worth $200 billion mostly never came to fruition before Trump’s first term ended.

More recently, Trump’s announcement last year of steep global tariffs prompted China to cut off purchases of U.S. soybeans and clamp down on exports of rare earth minerals needed by American factories.

Tensions have eased somewhat since the US reached a trade truce last fall that has limited tariffs on both sides. The administration has continued to make reducing the U.S. trade deficit with China a priority, insisting it can do so while still working to encourage trade between the two countries.

“I expect great stability in the relationship,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “But that doesn’t mean our trade deficit can’t continue dropping.”

Kelly, the White House spokeswoman, said Trump “doesn’t travel anywhere without bringing deliverables home to our country.”

“Americans can expect the president to deliver more good deals for the United States while in China,” she said.

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The party’s media unit said on X Friday that it had secured enough seats in Parliament to govern on its own, though rival group Jamaat-e-Islami raised concerns over delayed results.

The final tally has not yet been announced by the Election Commission, but several local media outlets reported the BNP crossing the 151-seat threshold needed for a majority in the 350-member Parliament.

The Election Commission said Friday the voter turnout in Thursday’s election stood at 59.44%. More than 127 million voters were eligible.

Akhter Ahmed, a senior secretary of the Election Commission, said Friday that a majority of voters backed a proposal for constitutional reforms that was held alongside the election. The proposal included prime ministerial term limits and stronger checks on executive power.

The BNP is headed by 60-year-old Tarique Rahman, its prime ministerial candidate who returned to Bangladesh in December after 17 years in self-exile in London. He is the son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who died in December.

Saleh Shibly, press secretary to Rahman, said the BNP leader called on his supporters to hold special prayers alongside the weekly Friday service and not to hold any celebratory rallies or processions.

US, China, India and Pakistan congratulate the BNP’s Rahman

The U.S. Embassy in Dhaka congratulated Rahman and his party on the win, calling it a “historic victory.”

“The United States looks forward to working with you to achieve shared goals of prosperity and security for both our countries,” U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh Brent T. Christensen wrote on X.

China congratulated the BNP for taking the lead in the election.

“We look forward to working together with the new government of Bangladesh and writing new chapters of China-Bangladesh relations,” the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka said in a statement.

Leaders from India and Pakistan also lauded the BNP leader.

Historically, Bangladesh has enjoyed mixed relationships with the two regional powers.

India helped Bangladesh gain independence from its rival Pakistan through a bloody war in 1971. It had a warm relation with Bangladesh under previous Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted following the 2024 protests and sent to exile in India.

Pakistan remained sidelined under Hasina, but that has been reversed under the interim administration led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus.

Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party makes inroads

The contest was largely a two-way race between the BNP and an 11-party alliance led by the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami, a conservative religious party whose growing influence has fueled concern, particularly among women and minority communities.

Despite falling short of a majority, the alliance made a notable impact, securing at least 77 seats, according to local TV channels.

Shafiqur Rahman, who heads Jamaat-e-Islami, secured a seat in Dhaka and is poised to become the opposition leader in Parliament. But his party voiced objections to the handling of the election results.

The party’s assistant secretary-general, Ahsanul Mahboob Zubair, said the Election Commission had delayed announcing results in several constituencies, calling the holdups “unusual.” In a statement on Facebook, the party also claimed that candidates from the alliance it heads were “narrowly and suspiciously losing” in multiple areas.

The National Citizen Party, established by student leaders of the uprising as a break from traditional politics but later aligning with the Jamaat-e-Islami-led coalition, also left its mark. Party chief Nahid Islam and at least three top leaders secured victories.

The vote was seen as test of Bangladesh’s democracy

Thursday’s vote took place amid tight security and concerns of democratic backsliding, rising political violence and the fraying of the rule of law.

The election was the first since a bloody student-led revolt in July 2024 led to Hasina’s ouster. Many viewed it as a crucial test of Bangladesh’s ability to restore trust in democracy and transform public protests into tangible political reform.

For much of the past 15 years, the BNP languished in opposition, boycotting several elections and accusing Hasina’s government of systematic vote rigging and political repression. Tarique Rahman himself spent 17 years in self-imposed exile after Hasina’s government pursued multiple corruption and other criminal cases against him. He has denied the charges, saying they were politically motivated.

Those cases were dropped after Hasina’s government collapsed, paving the way for his return to Bangladesh. His campaign has cast him as a defender of democracy in a country whose politics have long been shaped by entrenched parties, military interventions, and allegations of electoral manipulation.

Tarique Rahman’s BNP has for decades formed one half of the country’s entrenched dynastic political system. His father, Ziaur Rahman, rose from the ranks of the army to become a dominant political figure, serving as the country’s sixth president until his assassination in 1981. His mother Khaleda Zia, who first came to power in 1991, served two full five-year terms.

The party was the principal rival to Hasina’s Awami League party, now banned, and their long-running feud came to define Bangladesh’s political life.

Michael Kugelman, a senior fellow for South Asia at the Atlantic Council, said while the outcome appears as “a blow to the spirit of the 2024 revolution,” as the BNP has long been associated with corruption and dynastic politics, it will still face significant pressure to act differently this time.

“The BNP will need to be on its toes,” he said.

AP

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Police have confirmed the extradition of a 63-year-old Chinese national, Fujia Chen who was arrested in Johannesburg last year.

The Chinese national was accused of defrauding the Chinese government of R120 million through an unregistered foreign currency exchange business. He is now en route to China to stand trial.

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Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe provided detailed confirmation of the Chen’s arrest and extradition.

“We do have a 63-year-old fugitive of justice who fled to South Africa in 2021. According to the Chinese government, he defrauded them of R120 million by running an illegal foreign currency exchange business. He was placed on a Red Notice, which is a request to law enforcement agencies across the world to assist a particular country in locating and arresting fugitives of justice.”

Mathe explained that Chen’s arrest came after his attempted US visa application in July 2025

“We were alerted by the embassy on what he was attempting to do and we arrested him there and then. He’s been in police custody for the past six months. We received an extradition order from the Minister of Justice on the 20th of January. Three days ago, the Chinese delegation arrived, and we held a meeting with them. They not only alerted us on this particular fugitive, but also on 18 others we are searching for. Eleven are on Red Notices and we are still actively searching.”

According to Chinese authorities, the alleged operated an illegal foreign currency exchange business that evaded taxes and regulatory oversight, defrauding the state of R120 million.

He fled China in 2021 after his accomplices were arrested, hiding in South Africa until July 2025.

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His attempt to apply for a US visa triggered alerts from the US embassy, leading to his arrest by South African police.

The man remained in custody for six months. On 20 January 2026, the Minister of Justice granted an extradition order. He was formally handed over to Chinese officials three days ago.

The extradition was finalized during a meeting between South African police and a Chinese delegation led by Lieutenant General Khosi Senthumule, acting Deputy National Commissioner for Crime Detection.

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The delegation also raised concerns about 18 other Chinese fugitives believed to be hiding in South Africa.

Eleven of these fugitives are already listed on Interpol’s Red Notice system, according to Mathe.

Authorities confirmed that Interpol South Africa is actively pursuing these fugitives.

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South Africa will on Friday start its controversial week-long round of multinational naval exercises with China, Iran, and Russia at Naval Base Simon’s Town.

The games come despite mounting diplomatic unease from the United States and growing domestic criticism over the country’s military readiness and foreign policy direction.

The exercise, officially titled “Exercise Will for Peace 2026”, will run until next week Friday in South African waters, and is being led by China.

Chinese and Iranian warships have already arrived in False Bay, while Russian naval vessels are expected to dock ahead of the formal launch on Saturday, completing a grouping that has placed Pretoria’s claim of international non-alignment under renewed scrutiny.

Two Chinese vessels, the Type 052DL guided-missile destroyer Tangshan and the Type 903A replenishment ship Taihu, were spotted off the Cape coast earlier this week.

They were joined on Thursday by the Iranian Navy’s forward base ship IRIS Makran, a high-profile platform that has previously been deployed on long-range missions beyond the Middle East.

Russian participation is expected to include a corvette and a supply ship, with arrival anticipated shortly.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has described the exercise as a maritime security operation focused on the protection of shipping lanes and economic activity at sea.

According to a statement issued in December, the drills aim to enhance interoperability and cooperation “in support of peaceful maritime security initiatives” and will involve navies from BRICS-Plus countries.

While the drills have been billed as a BRICS-Plus engagement, key BRICS members such as India and Brazil are not participating.

US President Donald Trump has recently accused BRICS countries of pursuing “anti-American” policies, and South Africa’s relations with Washington have already been strained by its close ties with Russia and Iran, and its decision to bring a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice over the Gaza war.

South Africa was sharply criticised by Western partners in 2023 for hosting joint naval exercises with Russia and China on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Iran’s participation in the current exercise is likely to intensify those concerns, given Tehran’s ongoing standoff with the United States and its role in regional conflicts in the Middle East.

The DA has raised objections ahead of the opening ceremony, saying that hosting war games with China, Russia and Iran undermines South Africa’s professed non-aligned stance.

DA defence spokesperson Chris Hattingh said the exercise risks drawing South Africa into global power politics while offering little tangible benefit.

Hattingh said hosting the military forces of Iran and Russia is not neutral, adding that Parliament has not been adequately briefed on the costs, command structure or diplomatic consequences of the exercise.

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Tesla said that it delivered 1.64 million vehicles in 2025, down 9% from a year earlier.

Chinese rival BYD, which sold 2.26 million vehicles last year, is now the biggest EV maker.

It’s a stunning reversal for a car company whose rise once seemed unstoppable as it overtook traditional automakers with far more resources and helped make Musk the world’s richest man.

The sales drop came despite President Donald Trump’s marketing effort early last year when he called a press conference to praise Musk as a “patriot” in front of Teslas lined up on the White House driveway, then announced he would be buying one, bucking presidential precedent to not endorse private company products.

For the fourth quarter, Tesla sales totaled 418,227, falling short of even the much reduced 440,000 target that analysts recently polled by FactSet had expected. Sales were hit hard by the expiration of a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle purchases that was phased out by the Trump administration at the end of September.

Tesla stock fell 2.6% to $438.07 on Friday.

Even with multiple issues buffeting the company, investors are betting that Tesla CEO Musk can deliver on his ambitions to make Tesla a leader in robotaxi services and get consumers to embrace humanoid robots that can perform basic tasks in homes and offices. Reflecting that optimism, the stock finished 2025 with a gain of approximately 11%.

The latest quarter was the first with sales of stripped-down versions of the Model Y and Model 3 that Musk unveiled in early October as part of an effort to revive sales. The new Model Y costs just under $40,000 while customers can buy the cheaper Model 3 for under $37,000. Those versions are expected to help Tesla compete with Chinese models in Europe and Asia.

For fourth-quarter earnings coming out in late January, analysts are expecting the company to post a 3% drop in sales and a nearly 40% drop in earnings per share, according to FactSet. Analysts expect the downward trend in sales and profits to eventually reverse itself as 2026 rolls along.

Musk said earlier last year that a “major rebound” in sales was underway, but investors were unruffled when that didn’t pan out, choosing instead to focus on Musk’s pivot to different parts of business. He has has been saying the future of the company lies with its driverless robotaxis service, its energy storage business and building robots for the home and factory — and much less with car sales.

Tesla started rolling out its robotaxi service in Austin in June, first with safety monitors in the cars to take over in case of trouble, then testing without them. The company hopes to roll out the service in several cities this year.

To do that successfully, it needs to take on rival Waymo, which has been operating autonomous taxis for years and has far more customers. It also will also have to contend with regulatory challenges. The company is under several federal safety investigations and other probes. In California, Tesla is at risk of temporarily losing its license to sell cars in the state after a judge there ruled it had misled customers about their safety.

“Regulatory is going to be a big issue,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, a well-known bull on the stock. “We’re dealing with people’s lives.”

Still, Ives said he expects Tesla’s autonomous offerings will soon overcome any setbacks.

Musk has said he hopes software updates to his cars will enable hundreds of thousands of Tesla vehicles to operate autonomously with zero human intervention by the end of this year. The company is also planning to begin production of its AI-powered Cybercab with no steering wheel or pedals in 2026.

To keep Musk focused on the company, Tesla’s directors awarded Musk a potentially enormous new pay package that shareholders backed at the annual meeting in November.

Musk scored another huge windfall two weeks ago when the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a decision that deprived him of a $55 billion pay package that Tesla doled out in 2018.

Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire later this year when he sells shares of his rocket company SpaceX to the public for the first time in what analysts expect would be a blockbuster initial public offering.

AP

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Ramaphosa was speaking at a conference of the co-ruling African National Congress (ANC), the party of Nelson Mandela that defeated racist white minority rule in South Africa three decades ago.

“Some in our society still adhere to notions of racial superiority and seek to maintain racial privilege,” Ramaphosa said, adding that their views “conveniently align with wider notions of white supremacy and white victimhood fed by false claims of the persecution of white Afrikaners (descendants of mostly Dutch settlers) in our country.”

Two weeks ago, U.S. President Donald Trump boycotted a Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg, alleging without evidence that South Africa mistreats its white minority, and that white farmers were “being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated”.

The U.S. administration was furious that the hosts went ahead and secured a G20 declaration anyway, and said South Africa would be excluded from the next one, to be held in the U.S.

Though widely debunked, the notion that South Africa’s white minority is suffering a “genocide” has been circulating in far-right and white supremacist chat rooms for years, where aggrieved white nationals have sought support from some U.S. Republicans and the European right for their cause.

In February, Trump gave it as a reason for cutting development aid to South Africa.

“These false claims (have) … real implications for our sovereignty, international relations and national security,” Ramaphosa said. “A campaign … needs to be launched not only in our country, but globally … to address (them).”

The U.S. is South Africa’s third most important export market after the European Union and China. Trump’s administration has imposed a 30% import tariff on its goods, resisting South African attempts to have it reduced.

“Our government is continuing to engage the United States in negotiations to reach a trade agreement that benefits both countries,” Ramaphosa said. “At the same time, we have had to accelerate diversification of our export markets.”

-Reuters

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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa added that “the United States needs to think again whether boycott politics actually works, because in my experience it doesn’t work.”

Trump announced last week on social media that no U.S. government official would attend the Nov. 22-23 meeting of leaders from 19 of the world’s richest and leading developing economies in Johannesburg, citing his widely rejected claims that members of a white minority group in South Africa are being violently persecuted and having their land taken from them because of their race.

The U.S. president has for months targeted South Africa’s Black-led government for criticism over that and a range of other issues, including its decision to accuse U.S. ally Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in an ongoing and highly contentious case at the United Nations’ top court.

“It is unfortunate that the United States decided not to attend the G20,” Ramaphosa told reporters outside the South African Parliament. “The United States by not being at the G20, one must never think that we are not going to go on with the G20. The G20 will go on, all other heads of state will be here. In the end we will take fundamental decisions and their absence is their loss.”

Ramaphosa added that the U.S. is “giving up the very important role that they should be playing as the biggest economy in the world.”

Trump previously confronted Ramaphosa with his baseless claims that the Afrikaner white minority in South Africa were being killed in widespread attacks when the leaders met at the White House in May. At that meeting, Ramaphosa lobbied for Trump to attend this month’s G20 summit, the first to be held in Africa.

The G20 was formed in 1999 to bring rich and developing countries together to address issues affecting the global economy and international development. The U.S., China, Russia, India, Japan, France, Germany, the U.K. and the European Union are all members. The U.S. is due to take over the rotating presidency of the G20 from South Africa at the end of the year.

Trump said on Truth Social last week that it was “a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa” and claimed Afrikaners “are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated.”

Trump had already said he would not attend the summit, but Vice President JD Vance was expected to represent the U.S.

Trump’s claims about anti-white violence and persecution in South Africa have reflected those made previously by conservative media commentators in the U.S. as far back as 2018.

Trump and others, including South African-born Elon Musk, have also accused South Africa’s government of being racist against whites because of its affirmative action laws that aim to advance opportunities for the Black majority who were oppressed under the former apartheid system of racial segregation.

Ramaphosa’s government has said the comments are the result of misinformation and a lack of understanding of South Africa.

Relations between the U.S. and its biggest trading partner in Africa are at their lowest since the end of apartheid in 1994, and Washington expelled the South African ambassador to the U.S. in March over comments he made regarding Trump.

The Trump administration has criticized South Africa’s hosting of the G20 from the outset, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipping a G20 foreign ministers meeting in South Africa in February while calling the host’s policies “anti-Americanism” and deriding its focus on issues like climate change and global inequality.

-AP

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The president told reporters aboard Air Force One that the U.S. would lower tariffs implemented earlier this year as punishment on China for its selling of chemicals used to make fentanyl from 20% to 10%. That brings the total combined tariff rate on China down from 57% to 47%

“I guess on the scale from 0 to 10, with ten being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12,” Trump said. “I think it was a 12.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said China agreed to purchase 25 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans annually for the next three years, starting with 12 million metric tons from now to January. U.S. soybean exports to China, a huge market for them, had come to a standstill in the trade dispute.

“So you know, our great soybean farmers, who the Chinese used as political pawns, that’s off the table, and they should prosper in the years to come,” Bessent told Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria.”

Trump said that he would go to China in April and Xi would come to the U.S. “some time after that.” The president said they also discussed the export of more advanced computer chips to China, saying that Nvidia would be in talks with Chinese officials.

Trump said he could sign a trade deal with China “pretty soon.”

Xi said Washington and Beijing would work to finalize their agreements to provide “peace of mind” to both countries and the rest of the world, according to a report on the meeting distributed by state media.

“Both sides should take the long-term perspective into account, focusing on the benefits of cooperation rather than falling into a vicious cycle of mutual retaliation,” he said.

Sources of tension remain

Despite Trump’s optimism after a 100-minute meeting with Xi in South Korea, there continues to be the potential for major tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Both nations are seeking dominant places in manufacturing, developing emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, and shaping world affairs like Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs since returning to the White House for a second term, combined with China’s retaliatory limits on exports of rare earth elements, gave the meeting newfound urgency. There is a mutual recognition that neither side wants to risk blowing up the world economy in ways that could jeopardize their own country’s fortunes.

When the two were seated at the start of the meeting, Xi read prepared remarks that stressed a willingness to work together despite differences.

“Given our different national conditions, we do not always see eye to eye with each other,” he said through a translator. “It is normal for the two leading economies of the world to have frictions now and then.”

There was a slight difference in translation as China’s Xinhua News Agency reported Xi as telling Trump that having some differences is inevitable.

Finding ways to lower the temperature

The leaders met in Busan, South Korea, a port city about 76 kilometers (47 miles) south from Gyeongju, the main venue for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

In the days leading up to the meeting, U.S. officials signaled that Trump did not intend to make good on a recent threat to impose an additional 100% import tax on Chinese goods, and China showed signs it was willing to relax its export controls on rare earths and also buy soybeans from America.

Officials from both countries met earlier this week in Kuala Lumpur to lay the groundwork for their leaders. Afterward, China’s top trade negotiator Li Chenggang said they had reached a “preliminary consensus,” a statement affirmed by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent who said there was “ a very successful framework.”

Shortly before the meeting on Thursday, Trump posted on Truth Social that the meeting would be the “G2,” a recognition of America and China’s status as the world’s biggest economies. The Group of Seven and Group of 20 are other forums of industrialized nations.

But while those summits often happen at luxury spaces, this meeting took place in humbler surroundings: Trump and Xi met in a small gray building with a blue roof on a military base adjacent to Busan’s international airport.

The anticipated detente has given investors and businesses caught between the two nations a sense of relief. The U.S. stock market has climbed on the hopes of a trade framework coming out of the meeting.

Pressure points remain for both US and China

Trump has outward confidence that the grounds for a deal are in place, but previous negotiations with China this year in Geneva, Switzerland and London had a start-stop quality to them. The initial promise of progress has repeatedly given way to both countries seeking a better position against the other.

“The proposed deal on the table fits the pattern we’ve seen all year: short-term stabilization dressed up as strategic progress,” said Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Both sides are managing volatility, calibrating just enough cooperation to avert crisis while the deeper rivalry endures.”

The U.S. and China have each shown they believe they have levers to pressure the other, and the past year has demonstrated that tentative steps forward can be short-lived.

For Trump, that pressure comes from tariffs.

China had faced new tariffs this year totaling 30%, of which 20% were tied to its role in fentanyl production. But the tariff rates have been volatile. In April, he announced plans to jack the rate on Chinese goods to 145%, only to abandon those plans as markets recoiled.

Then, on Oct. 10, Trump threatened a 100% import tax because of China’s rare earth restrictions. That figure, including past tariffs, would now be 47% “effective immediately,” Trump told reporters on Thursday.

Xi has his own chokehold on the world economy because China is the top producer and processor of the rare earth minerals needed to make fighter jets, robots, electric vehicles and other high-tech products.

China had tightened export restrictions on Oct. 9, repeating a cycle in which each nation jockeys for an edge only to back down after more trade talks.

What might also matter is what happens directly after their talks. Trump plans to return to Washington, while Xi plans to stay on in South Korea to meet with regional leaders during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which officially begins on Friday.

“Xi sees an opportunity to position China as a reliable partner and bolster bilateral and multilateral relations with countries frustrated by the U.S. administration’s tariff policy,” said Jay Truesdale, a former State Department official who is CEO of TD International, a risk and intelligence advisory firm.

-AP

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By Marcus Moloko

U.S President Donald Trump has declared that any country joining the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) bloc would face punitive tariffs.

The U.S president was clear during a bilateral lunch with Argentine President Javier Milei at Mar-a-Lago that the BRICS alliance was “an attack on the dollar” and “anti-United States.”

“I told anybody who wants to be in BRICS, that’s fine, but we’re going to put tariffs on your nation. Everybody dropped out. They’re all dropping out of BRICS. BRICS was an attack on the dollar. And I said, you want to play that game, I’m going to put tariffs on your, on your, all of your product coming into the U.S.”

The exchange has triggered diplomatic ripples across the globe, particularly among BRICS members, including South Africa, India, China, Russia, and Brazil.

At the meeting with Argentine President Milei, Trump reiterated his belief that BRICS undermined the dollar’s global role.

South Africa, one of the founding BRICS members, may find itself in a precarious position. As Trump threatens 10% tariffs against BRICs-aligned nations, meaning Pretoria must weigh its commitment to the potential trade clash.

While South Africa may need to relook at its messaging as it advances, Trump’s threats could impact sectors such as mining, agriculture, and manufacturing.

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China is racing to develop its own technology as America restricts what can be sold to China, including its most advanced chips. At the same time, the Chinese government has reportedly told companies to stop buying some American chips as it seeks to transform China into a global tech leader and one that is less reliant on imported components.

Huawei, at the forefront of efforts to develop home-grown technology, said at an annual customer event in Shanghai that it would launch new “superpods” in late 2026 and late 2027. That’s computer industry lingo for a group of interconnected computers that, in Huawei’s case, combines the power of thousands of chips.

That immense power is needed to run models in the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence, an area of hot competition between the U.S. and China.

“This is a significant milestone,” said Charlie Dai, a technology analyst at the research firm Forrester Research. “It signals a stronger push toward self-reliance and resilience in the face of export restrictions.”

Huawei announced plans to release the Atlas 950 and 960 superpods over the next two years. Dozens of the “SuperPoDs,” as Huawei brands them, could be connected to form what Huawei said would be the world’s most powerful “SuperClusters.”

The 950 and 960 are the most powerful superpods in the world and would remain so for years to come, a company news release said, based on product road maps from others in the industry.

The challenge for China is how to keep pace with American competitors such as OpenAI and Google without access to the world’s most powerful semiconductors, notably those from America’s market-leading Nvidia. The answer has been to use many more chips and develop the architecture to make them work well together.

“Our strategy is to create a new computing architecture, and develop computing SuperPoDs and SuperClusters, to sustainably meet long-term demand for computing power,” Eric Xu, the current rotating chairman of Huawei, told the customer conference, according to a transcript provided by the company.

Huawei, based in Shenzhen in southern China, also announced plans to launch new AI chips in its Ascend series over the next three years. The Atlas 950 and 960 superpods would be based on the Ascend 950 and 960 chips, due out in 2026 and 2027. A planned Ascend 970 chip could follow in 2028.

-AP

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