This morning President Trump delivered another “trade deal” after his meeting with President Xi of China.
It was so awesome, here is the President’s braggadocio in the early hours about it (via Truth Social):
The platitudes and self congratulation aside, one has to ask, just what was the Chinese perspective on all of this since the Trump administration has repeatedly exaggerated every trade “deal” or conversation his administration has engage in since Liberation Day in April.
First, the initial handshake where Xi kept Trump standing alone for several seconds appeared awkward if not outright cold.
NOW – Trump and Xi meet face-to-face, shaking hands, Xi says very little. pic.twitter.com/3K0np2UhlT
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) October 30, 2025
The meeting was much of the same with the public videos and stills showing Xi reading from a pad and limiting eye contact with President Trump.
But what was the official or Chinese media interpretation of this morning’s meeting and the conclusions they were willing to share?
From the story this morning in Xinhua, the key points only highlight the basic outline of what both sides agreed to suspend and continue “discussing” as this excerpt highlights:
The U.S. side will cancel the 10-percent so-called “fentanyl tariffs” and suspend, for an additional year, the 24-percent reciprocal tariffs levied on Chinese goods, including goods from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macao Special Administrative Region, according to a spokesperson of the ministry.
China will make corresponding adjustments to its countermeasures against the aforementioned U.S. tariffs, the spokesperson said, noting that both sides have agreed to continue extending certain tariff exclusion measures.
The United States will suspend for one year the implementation of a new rule announced on Sept. 29 that expands its “entity-list” export restrictions to any entity that is at least 50 percent owned by one or more entities on the list. China will suspend the implementation of relevant export control measures announced on Oct. 9 for one year and will study and refine specific plans, the spokesperson said.
The U.S. side will suspend the implementation of measures under its Section 301 investigation targeting China’s maritime, logistics and shipbuilding industries for one year. In response, China will correspondingly suspend the implementation of its countermeasures against the U.S. side for one year once the U.S. suspension takes effect, according to the spokesperson.
In addition, the two sides also reached consensus on issues including anti-drug cooperation on fentanyl, expanding agricultural product trade, and the handling of individual cases involving relevant enterprises, according to the spokesperson.
Notice there was no public proclamation of a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding), no signed treaty, no permanent solution announced, just a public declaration to promise to keep talking and to withdraw from the edge after the October kerfuffle where Trump threatened China with another 100% tariff and China retaliated on the ninth with a threat to basically shut down rare earth exports.
The analysis by William Pesek at the Asia Times this morning sums it up best:
For one thing, there’s nothing “grand” about the bargain to which Trump and Xi are discussing in the loosest and vaguest terms possible. Specifics, targets, enforcement mechanisms and punishment for non-compliance will all be discussed by US and Chinese trade officials at a future date.
Ouch.
Meanwhile, ignored by America’s financial media is one very important fact which will have a massive future impact on US imports of rare earths. Everyone seems to have forgotten that on August 22 of this year, China imposed another restriction which has not been altered and will impede the US ability to important necessary processed materials required for manufacturing. The following quote from the Reuters story of August 22nd is this key excerpt from the article China Tightens Grip Over Rare Earth Supply Quotas:
Beijing already regulates and manages rare earth mining, smelting and separation via a quota system. The new rules will include imported raw materials in that quota system, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a statement, following a public consultation process that began in February.
In other words any rare earths we mine in the US and ship to China for processing are subject to the exact same quotas and restrictions Chinese domestic production is required to abide by. This key fact will keep the quotas tight and the restrictions limiting exports for dual use rare earths at the bare minimum.
The big meeting however is on Saturday in South Korea and does not involve Trump in the least. With the APEC meeting winding down, the side meeting between President Lee of South Korea with Xi could have massive implications considering the mafia style negotiations used by the US to intimidate our trading partners.
Considering the work that Xi and his administration has put into developing regional trade blocks, the US should pay close attention to the outcome of this meeting as a warming of relations between China, Japan, and South Korea could be a larger threat than any technology restrictions the US imposes on China.
Once again the American media reported some photo ops but still all talk, no action, or in other words a hollowed out empty egg roll.
With nothing concrete but recycling the strategy of the Trump administration of delay and pray for a stronger economy, financial uncertainty continues to permeate the US supply chain. Perhaps one day and actual trade agreement might finally be produced with just one nation that promotes free trade versus penalizing American business and consumers with burdensome taxation.
