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Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will meet twice more this year after a summit in Washington rich in pomp but which failed to resolve tensions linked to American assertions according to which China does not honor its commitments in terms of exports of rare earths.
The White House and China’s Foreign Ministry said the presidents would meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Shenzhen in November and at the G20 in Miami in December, according to separate statements released after Xi left Washington on Friday following a three-day state visit to the United States.
The White House said the countries “continue to work on U.S. concerns about supply chain shortages related to rare earths and other critical minerals.”
The Chinese statement said Xi and Trump asked their economic teams to implement agreements reached before their October 2025 summit in Busan, which included a one-year ceasefire in the trade war.
Two days before the Washington summit, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two sides had agreed to extend the truce until January 10. China wanted to extend it until Trump leaves office, but the United States refused because it wants Beijing to improve the flow of rare earth exports, according to U.S. officials.
A senior US official told the FT this week that China is meeting two-thirds of the commitment it made on rare earth exports to the South Korean port city of Busan.
In one area where the two statements diverge, China said the U.S. and Chinese militaries had agreed to “enter into a memorandum of understanding on crisis communications.” The Trump administration has said that is not true.
“This is not accurate and has not even been discussed,” a US official told the FT.
But the statements included several areas of agreement. Referring to the Strait of Hormuz, both said: “No country or institution can be allowed to impose tolls on international waterways. »
The White House said Trump also urged Xi to increase Chinese production of refined petroleum products to stabilize global supplies.
Expanding on a phrase first used during Trump’s visit to Beijing in May, the United States and China both said they agreed to “build a constructive relationship…of strategic stability on the basis of respect, fairness and reciprocity.”
China said the leaders noted their countries’ cooperation in the fight against narcotics, while the White House went further to recognize China’s decision to impose new export controls on fentanyl ingredients. But he urged China to take more action to “help stem the flow” of illegal ingredients to drug traffickers in North America.
Some critics questioned whether the two presidents accomplished much during a summit that seemed more focused on pomp and pageantry than substance. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Friday that the United States will release more details on Monday about the Board of Trade – a mechanism for identifying non-sensitive products that will benefit from reduced tariffs.
“Both leaders seem to really enjoy each other’s company. It’s rare to see Xi so relaxed,” said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the German Marshall Fund. “Now that they have committed to attending Apec and G20 meetings, the chances that the relative stability of bilateral relations will continue for the rest of the year are high.”
Glaser said there was more overlap in statements than at previous summits, but added that she was surprised not to see a reference to Taiwan in the Chinese statement. The United States also did not mention Taiwan. Trump said Saturday that the two leaders “didn’t spend a lot of time talking about Taiwan.”
Steve Yates, a China expert at the Heritage Foundation who served as deputy national security adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney, said the summit’s mission had been “more maintenance than breakthrough.”
“Our systems are not aligned to agree on important or controversial issues. Early on, there may have been concerns about a pushback on technology, Taiwan and trade. No evidence of this has emerged so far,” Yates added.
The White House said the presidents had agreed to refer to AI as “superintelligence” – a phrase promoted by Trump – but the Chinese statement said they had established a “China-US AI dialogue” to exchange views on the risks. He added that countries would create a bilateral communication channel for AI incidents, something the United States had proposed.
The US statement said Trump called on the US, China and Russia to engage in trilateral arms control negotiations – something China did not mention.
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