Trump, Xi, and Managing Competition 

By Sam Dantzler

Last week’s Trump-Xi meeting in South Koreas was one of those diplomatic moments where the vibes and the substance didn’t totally match, but both administrations pretended they did. Both sides seemed to have a positive response and agreed that relations were headed in a more “stable” direction. Compared to the icy standoff we’ve seen for years, a functioning conversation between Washington and Beijing is progress in itself. Trump, in classic Trump fashion, called the meeting a “12 out of 10,” while Xi, as ever, stayed measured and cast the moment as two countries calmly “steering the ship” of their relationship through choppy waters. 

Substance-wise, Trump did notch some wins or at least claimed them. The president announced a rollback of some tariffs, halted a planned 100% tariff escalation, and touted commitments from China to buy U.S. soybeans again. Fentanyl was also a key focus of the meeting, with China promising to work with Washington on cracking down on precursor chemicals in exchange for reduced tariffs on Chinese goods. The rare-earths issue – arguably the most geopolitically sensitive part of the whole thing – moved too, with Xi agreeing to pause its export controls for a year.

That said, what wasn’t said (or signed) matters. Trump told 60 Minutes that Taiwan never came up – a point he seemed to spin as strength, arguing Beijing simply wouldn’t dare challenge U.S. resolve. That’s one interpretation. Another is that both sides opted to avoid the hardest issue in the relationship entirely, which says a lot about the limits of this temporary thaw. And on other sticky points, from TikTok’s future in the U.S. to deeper technology restrictions, there was no final resolution, just more “we’ll see” rhetoric and a promise that the paperwork will come “soon.”Zooming out, there’s a bigger story underneath the meeting. Beijing enters this phase of the rivalry in a far stronger position than in Trump’s first term. Over the last decade, China didn’t just absorb U.S. pressure but has instead effectively adapted to it. Rare-earth control became leverage, soybean dependence was diversified toward Brazil and Argentina, and tech ambitions accelerated. Analysts across the spectrum pointed out that Xi looked more like an equal this time, a key difference from meetings between he and Trump during Trump’s first term. That doesn’t mean China “won” the meeting, but it does mean the power dynamic has shifted to something far closer to parity and it looks like both Washington and Beijing know it.