On Oct. 30, a landmark meeting between leaders of the world’s two major powers, the U.S. and China, took place in Busan, South Korea. It was the first face-to-face meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump since 2019, marking the end of the latter’s Asia tour. As Reuters reported, President Trump claimed that “It was an amazing meeting,” describing the talks as a “12 out of 10.”

Both presidents made significant concessions, including surprising many by agreeing to a 1 year trade truce. Another important outcome of the meeting was the agreement on tariffs and rare earth metals. Previously, the People’s Republic of China was supposed to be subject to the most serious tariffs introduced by the U.S. this year in April, totaling 145%. Earlier this month, President Trump threatened to add a 100% tariff on Chinese goods in response to China’s strict export restrictions on rare earth metals. The PRC is the world’s largest controller of rare earth mining and processing. These resources are important in semiconductor production and military usage because of their application in electronics. After the 90-minute meeting, Mr. Trump claimed, “All of the rare earth has been settled [...] That roadblock is gone now, there’s no roadblock at all on rare earths.” This outcome delivered important insights, namely the extent of leverage China possesses over the U.S. through its control of critical minerals. The decreased American leverage will certainly impact future interactions and negotiations between the two actors.

Progress was also made concerning the tariffs due to the announced cooperation in the fight against fentanyl. In February 2025, President Trump administered a 20% tariff on Chinese imports as a response to the inefficient crackdown on the drug’s flow into the U.S. After the meeting, he decreased it by 10%, following Beijing’s commitment to improve its domestic countermeasures. Nevertheless, nothing was surprising about this concession, as such a declaration had already been made by Beijing earlier this year.

As for other issues, Trump managed to make Beijing commit to the purchase of 12 million metric tonnes of American soybeans for 2025, and at least 25 million annually until 2028, a point of concern among American farmers. Moreover, the two leaders discussed the possibility of cooperation to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. While Ukraine was counting on the American president to convince his Chinese counterpart to buy less Russian oil, the topic of oil was not discussed in the meeting. However, what did come up was the idea of the countries working together to end the war. As Politico quoted Trump,, “It does not affect China; it does not affect us. But I don’t like to see thousands of young men killed.”

While for some the meeting brought hope for international cooperation, others, including Taiwanese leaders, watched it with great caution. President Trump had said that the issue of Taiwan would not be discussed during these talks, emphasizing the importance of other topics, specifically on Xi “holding a gun to the head of the global economy”. This remark raised questions about the priorities of the Trump administration, with some experts worried about concessions in relation to Taiwan in hopes of achieving better trade deals.

Another question is whether this truce can be maintained in the long run. As an analyst from the Atlantic Council, John Lipsky observed, “[...] many of these wins just get us back to where we were before the U.S.-China trade wars of the spring. In fact, China still faces higher tariffs than it did when Trump came into office. And many of the most difficult issues in the relationship were left to be discussed another day.” Since it is only temporary, the truce does not solve the issues at the heart of the trade war. If anything, the truce buys China time, which is essential for the technological advancement the country hopes to make, such as in the area of semiconductors, to effectively decrease American leverage even further.

Many matters remain unresolved – the meeting in Busan was merely the tip of the iceberg of the current U.S.-China relations. What remains is to wait for the meetings in 2026, the closest taking place in Beijing next April. Until then, the world will be assessing how both countries prepare - and waiting to see who will dictate the terms.