President Donald Trump, our chief dealmaker, has had great success in Asia. And not just with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Harnessing the power of the US economy, Trump is upending globalism with new bilateral trade deals, record-breaking US direct investment, and a path to dominate artificial intelligence (AI).
Even before his meeting with Xi, Trump was busy restoring economic security. Its bilateral trade agreements with Asian countries are making an important contribution to repairing the damage caused after the West naively admitted China to the World Trade Organization’s no-tariff zone in 2001.
Then in Busan, South Korea, Trump took action on soybeans, rare earths, restrictions on fentanyl and perhaps even increased oil sales to China.
Xi felt the walls closing in. America has allies and friends. China has Russian President Vladimir Putin.
TRUMP VISITS SOUTH KOREA While Trying to Raise Billions in Investments
US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping as they hold a bilateral meeting at Gimhae International Airport, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Busan, South Korea, October 30, 2025. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
The US-China deal is effectively a one-year truce that will avoid the 100% penalty that Trump threatened to impose on China. The question is whether China will keep this up. Often not. It doesn’t matter. With $525 billion in exports to the US in 2024, America is by far China’s largest trading partner, giving Trump leverage if China tries trade war tactics again.
Here are Trump’s four wins and one big miss:
TRUMP TEACHES A LESSON BASED ON FAITH: HOW TO BEST BE STRONG IN TRADE WITH CHINA
Turning the tables on rare earth minerals
Withholding sales of processed rare earths has been China’s sharpest trade weapon, roiling markets and threatening factories around the world. Xi agreed to open up, but Trump is playing the long game to reduce China’s market share by boosting global production from friends and allies.
Faster than kids grabbing candy on Halloween, Trump signed production pacts for crucial minerals with several countries including Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan. “In about a year we will have so many critical minerals and rare earths that you won’t know what to do with them,” Trump said during Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit. The deals are the brainchild of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The BBC called the rare earth deals “a turning point in the US-China rivalry.”
A victory for soybean farmers
TRUMP’S FOCUS TURNS TO JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA TO ASIA TRIP CONTINUES
At $12 billion annually, soybeans are by far the largest U.S. agricultural product exported to China. That’s why China stopped buying American soybeans in May. That’s over, as Xi pledged to catch up this year and then buy 25 million tons annually, close to the 27 million tons bought in 2024. Republican Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn told The Iowa Dispatch it was “an important first step.”
AI chips
Calm down. Yes, for example, we want NVIDIA to sell AI chips to China. Just not the very best. “We’re not talking about the Blackwell,” Trump clarified. Here’s the deal. Sales = profit = investment = dominant global market share = beating China. The Biden administration was just trying to limit U.S. sales, but that was a fundamental misunderstanding of what it will take to beat China in AI.
TRUMP CLAIMS ASIA TOUR BROUGHT BACK ‘TRILLIONS’ TO US, Ahead of CRITICAL MEETING WITH CHINA’S XI
You see, chips alone don’t determine the winner. The key is developers’ use of the entire US AI stack, including software, cloud and chips, running at speed in US data centers around the world. Part of that strategy is for Chinese developers to buy and use good chips, but not the very best. Make sure the world continues to run the American AI stack, and China will be left out of market share and innovations. Great.
Direct investment in the US
This is phenomenal. South Korean money will repair the shipyard in Philadelphia. Japanese money will support crucial new energy infrastructure, from gas turbines to small modular nuclear reactors. It all started in May with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and now Asian allies are clamoring for US investment.
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President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One as he travels from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Tokyo, Japan, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
Trump has secured more than $18 trillion in investment commitments for everything from shipyards to AI data centers and aluminum smelting. “I think we’ll get to $21 or $22 trillion by the time I finish my first year,” Trump said in South Korea on Wednesday. Trump is making a profit. Call it payback for decades of unequal tariffs and shipping production overseas.
Ukraine and the China-Russia alliance
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The big miss of this trip will unfortunately be Ukraine. Trump tried. “Ukraine came up very strongly. We talked about it for a long time,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. Trump said Xi “is going to help us, and we are going to work together in Ukraine.” Don’t hold your breath. Xi has kept Russia’s war machine running with oil purchases and microelectronics. He could take the North Koreans out of the fight in Ukraine with one phone call. China doesn’t care if Russians and Ukrainians die and Europe is in panic.
Admittedly, the only glimmer of hope is that the four largest Chinese companies have suspended purchases of Russian oil from the sea following Trump’s sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil. Trump chose to tackle economic issues during his Asia trip, but there is still much work to be done with China.
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