President Donald Trump said his next meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping will address issues such as Taiwan, jailed Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai and Russia’s war in Ukraine, signaling a broader agenda amid continued trade and geopolitical tensions.
When asked what he expected from his meeting with Xi, President Trump said on Air Force One: “There are a lot of things to discuss, including farmers.” “There are a lot of things to discuss. Various trade agreements that have been made in the past, some that have been broken, some that have not been broken. … I think it will be a very good meeting.”
President Trump said Taiwan would also be on the agenda.
“I’m going to talk about Taiwan. I’m not going to Taiwan, but I’m going to talk about Taiwan,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “It won’t be long. Hats off to Taiwan.”
On Air Force One, President Trump was asked about his earlier comments that he did not believe China would take any action against Taiwan. Beijing has long considered Taiwan a rogue breakaway island and vowed to eventually reunite it with mainland China.
Trump replied, “I hope not, but we’ll have to wait and see. It may or may not happen.” “I hope they don’t do that. If they do, it’s very dangerous for them.”
Trump added that he believes China “wants to have a great decade, and it’s possible…or we could have a bad year, and China doesn’t want that.”
He also said he would take up the case of Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong media mogul and founder of Apple Daily, who has been imprisoned since 2020 under the Hong Kong National Security Law. The law is widely seen as a key part of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) plan to erode Hong Kong’s autonomy and crack down on dissent.
“It’s on my list. I’m going to ask,” Trump said of Southern Law, adding that he understands there’s a lot of animosity between Mr. Lai and Mr. X, but “it’s been a long time, so I’m going to put it on my list.”
Tariffs, concessions, Russia
President Trump described his meeting with Xi as a two-way negotiation with moves on both sides, with reservations about the threat of new tariffs.
“They have to make concessions, and so will we,” he said. “We have a 157 percent tariff on them. I don’t think that’s sustainable for them, and they want it to come down. And we want certain things from them. I think that’s a very good thing.”
Pressed about the possibility of imposing 100% tariffs on November 1 if there is no deal, President Trump expressed hope that a compromise could be reached.
President Trump responded, “I don’t want to predict probabilities.” “I don’t think they want that. It’s not good for them.”
U.S. trade negotiators say they have been in contact with their Chinese counterparts since Beijing imposed broad restrictions on rare earth exports earlier this month, prompting Washington to retaliate with 100% tariffs. U.S. officials say China’s restrictions could disrupt global supply chains for critical minerals even in countries that don’t trade directly with China, but the European Union and International Monetary Fund have joined the U.S. in urging Beijing to reverse the measures.
China controls about 90% of the world’s rare earth processing, a long-standing concern for the United States. President Trump said the restrictions would hurt China more than the United States.
“At some point, they’re not going to be able to do any business with us. At some point, if we pay enough tariffs, it’s like saying, ‘We don’t want to do business with you,'” President Trump told reporters after a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on October 20, announcing a major minerals deal.
President Trump said he expected the Chinese government to respond by easing export restrictions, tightening regulations on fentanyl precursors and restarting purchases of U.S. soybeans. He also said he wants fair trading conditions that reduce the imbalance in U.S. investment flowing into China.
Regarding Russia, Trump said he would ask Xi to “assist us” in curbing Russian aggression in Ukraine.
“We have imposed very large sanctions on Russia. … They are very harsh and very strong. But we want China to help us,” Trump said on Air Force One. “One of the things we talk about is the Russia-Ukraine (war). They’re killing 7,000 people every week, most of them soldiers. And we’ll definitely talk about that. He also wants to see an end to it.”
President Trump’s Asia tour includes visits to Malaysia, Japan, and South Korea, and will be his first visit to the region since his second term in office.
