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High detente: The United States and China are approaching a meeting at the leadership level
Following a telephone conversation with Xi Jinping on September 19, Donald Trump announced that he had agreed to meet with the Chinese leader at the APEC summit in South Korea and travel to China next year. An improvement in relations between Beijing and Washington may result in the signing of a trade agreement, according to the expert community. However, this is unlikely to affect the dynamics of the Russian-Chinese dialogue, analysts believe. Nevertheless, China and America still have contradictions on the issue of importing high-tech products from the United States, in particular, chips. See the Izvestia article on what issues the United States and China will be able to resolve.
Telephone conversation between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping
On September 19, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a telephone conversation. These are the first talks between the leaders in three months, as the countries' dialogue is complicated by the confrontation due to mutual trade restrictions.
The American president said he had a "very productive" conversation with Xi Jinping and the parties had made progress on many issues, including trade, ending the Ukrainian conflict and the TikTok deal.
— I also agreed with President Xi Jinping that we will meet at the APEC summit in South Korea, that I will travel to China early next year, and that President Xi Jinping will also visit the United States at an appropriate time. The conversation was very successful, we will talk more on the phone, we appreciate the approval of the TikTok deal and we both look forward to meeting at APEC! — Donald Trump announced on the Truth Social network.
The Chinese side was also satisfied with the dialogue. According to Chinese Central Television, "the conversation between Trump and Xi Jinping was positive and constructive, the parties discussed issues of common interest." The Chinese leader told Trump that the United States should avoid unilateral trade restrictions.
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have finally confirmed the agreement on the transfer of TikTok under the control of the American side. The fate of the social network has become part of the US-China trade negotiations. As reported in the media, Washington threatened to block TikTok if Beijing did not abandon demands for lower duties and technological restrictions. The social network owned by the Chinese company ByteDance could have been blocked as early as September 17. However, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that at the Madrid talks held in the middle of the month, Washington and Beijing reached a framework agreement on the transfer of ownership rights to the American divisions of TikTok.
According to Reuters, the parties agreed that TikTok's American assets would be controlled by a consortium of investors, which would include Oracle, led by businessman Larry Ellison, a Trump acquaintance. Moreover, a new company will be created to manage the application, in which approximately 80% of the shares will belong to American investors, and the rest to Chinese shareholders. The board of directors of the company will be dominated by Americans, and one of the members will be appointed by the US government.
Larry Ellison
Although the US authorities have repeatedly stated that the Chinese social network poses a threat to the United States, they were in no hurry to permanently block it. For example, Donald Trump was convinced of the usefulness of TikTok by billions of video views with his participation during last year's election campaign. The application partially helped to attract young people, which ensured his victory, says Pavel Koshkin, senior researcher at the Department of Internal Political Studies at ISKRAN.
— TikTok partially helped Trump attract the youth electorate, which, in turn, created the conditions for his victory in the 2024 elections. Despite speculation about China using this social network to spy on Americans and project Beijing's influence, Trump has repeatedly postponed the deadline for the final ban on TikTok, the expert said in a conversation with Izvestia. — Hence the attempts to put pressure on China in order to sell the social network to American owners. It's a very valuable asset to throw away just like that. China's influence on the United States through the social network is far from proven and speculative in nature. But her departure from America may create obstacles to gaining the sympathy of young people.
Prospects for a US-China trade deal
Agreeing to sell the app opens up space for Beijing to negotiate duties, according to the expert community. The United States has imposed 30% tariffs on China, and Chinese duties on American imports are now 10%.
— Buying TikTok will allow Trump to kill several birds with one stone. Firstly, it will reduce the intensity of tariff confrontation and the risks of economic instability both in the world and within the country due to the greater interdependence of the two powers. Secondly, it will preserve a powerful instrument of electoral struggle in the hands of Republicans. Thirdly, it will consolidate for Trump the image of a strong leader and a "master of the deal" among voters. Fourthly, it will give a reason to inflate this issue in the information space," Pavel Koshkin believes.
The talks between the US and Chinese delegations held in Madrid laid the foundation for a meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the APEC summit in South Korea, where they will discuss a wide range of issues, Andrei Kortunov, an expert at the Valdai Club, told Izvestia.
— In the trade sphere, it seems to me, some kind of agreements are possible, since there are mutual interests, an understanding that a complete rupture of trade relations will hurt not only China, but also the United States. Unfortunately, I think there is much less hope on the issue of high technologies, since the Trump administration assumes that limiting the supply of high technologies is one of the main tools for slowing down China's economic and technological development, so such a war will probably continue here," he said.
Against the background of these events, on September 17, Beijing suspended the purchase of another artificial intelligence chip from the American company Nvidia. This happened after a Chinese regulator accused one of the US tech giants of violating antitrust laws. The reason for these measures was the confidence of the Chinese authorities in achieving parity in the quality of chips with their American counterparts, the Financial Times wrote.
Recently, China and the United States have brought their positions closer on the issue of resolving the trade war initiated by Washington, says Nikolai Marchenko, Sinologist, director of the Autonomous Non-Governmental Organization Eurasian Youth Projects.
— During recent contacts, the parties agreed to extend the "truce" for another 90 days. It is possible that the improvement of relations between Beijing and Washington may result in the signing of a trade agreement between the two countries. At the same time, it should be noted that the existence of the document does not guarantee the completion of the technological race that has unfolded between the countries," he told Izvestia.
The US-China dialogue on Ukraine
Before the talks in Madrid, President Donald Trump said that, in his opinion, the conflict in Ukraine would end only if all NATO countries stopped importing Russian oil and imposed tariffs on China from 50 to 100% on the purchase of energy resources from Russia. Nikolai Marchenko notes that the restriction on the purchase of Russian oil will cause a sharp deterioration in the already difficult US-Chinese relations.
— In response to reproaches from the West, Beijing has repeatedly stressed that only it has the right to sovereignly resolve issues of its energy security. Nevertheless, even if restrictions are imposed by the West, cooperation between Russia and China in the energy sector will continue. Moscow and Beijing have rich experience in countering Western sanctions," Marchenko believes.
The improvement of US-China relations and the end of the trade war between the countries may affect the dynamics of trade turnover between the Russian Federation and China, which is showing a decline during 2025. The most vulnerable places are the trade in energy resources and food products, the analyst believes. However, this will not be able to shake the full power of the multilateral Russian-Chinese strategic partnership, which is not limited by the statistics of trade turnover alone, Nikolai Marchenko concludes.
At the same time, China's position on the conflict in Ukraine remains unchanged. On September 15, Lin Jian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, noted that the country takes an objective and fair position and is actively working to promote peace talks.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the United States is trying to remove the Ukrainian conflict from the agenda in order to remove obstacles to normal economic, technological and other cooperation relations.
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