Trump seeks trade deal with Xi during Asia trip

Highlights: 

• On-again, off-again Xi meeting is visit's centrepiece
• Five-day trip spans Malaysia, Japan and South Korea
• Trump tests deal-making prowess in tariff-battered region

US President Donald Trump will test his deal-making capabilities on a trip to Asia, a region battered by his hardball trade policies, while doubts hang over his highly anticipated meeting with China's Xi Jinping.

Trump, who left Washington last night (24 October), is set for a five-day trip to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, his first to the region and longest journey abroad since taking office in January.

The Republican leader hopes to pile up trade, critical mineral and ceasefire deals before turning to the toughest challenge, a face-to-face with Xi on Thursday in South Korea.

Trump is also working to maintain the signature foreign policy achievement of his second term, a fragile ceasefire he helped to strike in the Israel-Gaza conflict, while the Russian war in Ukraine rages and a trade war with China shows little sign of ending.

US, China trade threats on key minerals, technology

Washington and Beijing have hiked tariffs on each other's exports and threatened to cut off trade in critical minerals and technologies altogether.

The trip was formally announced by the White House on Thursday. Details remain in flux, including the meeting between leaders of the world's two largest economies.

Neither side expects a breakthrough that would restore the terms of trade that existed before Trump's second-term inauguration in January, according to a person familiar with the conversations.

Instead, talks between the two sides to prepare for the meeting focused on managing disagreements and modest improvements.

An interim agreement could include limited relief on tariffs, an extension of current rates, or China committing to buy US-made soybeans and Boeing airplanes. Beijing reneged on similar promises in a 2020 deal with Trump.

Washington could let more high-end computer chips flow to Beijing, which in turn could loosen controls on rare earth magnets that have angered Trump.

Or, nothing could come of the talks at all.

On Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump-Xi talk would be a "pull-aside," suggesting nothing formal.

Trump later told reporters the two would have "a pretty long meeting," allowing them to "work out a lot of our questions and our doubts and our tremendous assets together."

China has not confirmed a meeting is planned.

Trump set to visit three countries, meet world leaders

Mira Rapp-Hooper, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Biden administration official, said Trump's Asia policy has been defined by intense pressure on countries' trade policies and defense spending.

"The high-level question on this trip is really, who does the United States stand with, and what does it stand for," she said.

Trump is expected at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, which starts Sunday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

There, he could oversee the signing of a ceasefire deal between Thailand and Cambodia. The deal would formalise an agreement that ended the worst fighting in years between the two countries in July, though it falls short of a comprehensive peace deal. During his second term in office, Trump has branded himself as a global peacemaker.

After that stop, Trump will head to Japan to meet Sanae Takaichi, the newly elected prime minister. Takaichi is expected to affirm plans by her predecessor to hike military spending and to make $550 billion in Trump-directed investments in the US.

Then, in Busan, South Korea, Trump plans to meet Xi ahead of an international trade summit. Trump is set to return to Washington before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' forum gets under way, according to the schedule announced by the White House on Thursday.

Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese imports to a total of some 155% from November 1 if they cannot strike a deal. That would almost certainly provoke a reaction from Beijing and end a truce that paused tit-for-tat hikes.

Beyond trade, the two leaders are expected to discuss Taiwan, a long-running US-China irritant, and Russia, a Chinese ally now subject to expanded US sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

"There's no intent from the US side to discuss other issues," aside from China's trade, export controls and its purchases of Russian oil, according to a US official, who said Trump would be prepared to reiterate previous responses if Xi raised other topics.

Before departing the White House on Friday for the trip, Trump told reporters he expected the Taiwan issue to be raised during his talks with Xi.

Trump also said he will likely raise the issue of releasing Jimmy Lai, the founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily. Lai is serving a prison sentence in Hong Kong under Beijing-imposed national security laws.

"It's on my list. I'm going to ask ... We'll see what happens," Trump told reporters.

Deal or no deal

It was not clear if Trump would try to resume trade negotiations with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is also traveling in Asia, after abruptly cutting off talks. The two "will likely see each other" on Wednesday at a dinner with other leaders, another official said.

Trump is also trying to close trade deals with Malaysia and India, while shoring up a deal that has already been struck with South Korea.

US and South Korean relations have been strained by Seoul's concerns over the $350 billion investment in US companies sought by Trump and deportations of the country's foreign workers.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung wants Trump to pursue peace with North Korea's Kim Jong Un. US officials considered, but never confirmed, a trip to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, according to another person familiar with the discussions. Another US official said yesterday that no Kim-Trump meeting was on the schedule for the trip.