Trump-Xi Summit Leaves US-China Rivalry Frozen — SkimNews
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- Xi Jinping received a rare VIP reception at Andrews Air Force Base on Wednesday — typically reserved for the White House — followed by 90 minutes of bilateral talks with Trump in the Oval Office and a Thursday state dinner.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the US-China trade truce due to expire in November has been extended until January to allow more time for economic negotiations, though no specific sector or goods tariff deals were reported by Friday morning.
- The Financial Times reported China has not fully met its rare earth supply commitments from the October "Busan deal," with shipments to the US dropping recently amid concerns Beijing could again "choke supplies."
- Xi told Trump he hopes the US will "adhere to the correct position of opposing Taiwan independence" — a sharper formulation than the current US posture of "not supporting" independence, though Trump has yet to shift the US narrative.
- Trump has delayed a $14 billion US arms package for Taiwan passed by Congress in January, calling it a "good bargaining chip" after the May summit; the Eurasia Group analyst expects further delays to maintain the truce.
- A US-China AI dialogue was announced after Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, but no meeting date was set beyond the APEC summit in November as a possible venue.
Why it matters: Beijing extracted state-visit optics and a January trade truce extension without committing to concrete deliverables on rare earths, AI, or Taiwan. MERICS and Eurasia Group analysts assess the trajectory currently favors China; one MERICS analyst called the truce's foundations "brittle" and unlikely to survive beyond Trump's presidency.
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