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Trump aims to 'make a deal on everything' with China's Xi at APEC

Published: 23 Oct. 2025, 12:20

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 29, 2019. [AP/YONHAP]

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he plans to "make a deal on everything" with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Gyeongju on Oct. 31. It will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since Trump returned to office, and comes amid escalating tensions in the U.S.-China trade relationship.

Speaking from the Oval Office during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump said the two sides are set for “a pretty long meeting.” “We can work out a lot of our questions and our doubts and our tremendous assets together,” he said.

Earlier in the day, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business News that the two leaders are expected to hold a “pull-aside” meeting in Korea.

Trump suggested the two sides may reach agreements on a range of topics, including China’s export controls on rare earth materials and U.S. soybean exports, but emphasized the issue of tariffs, adding that "the rare earth is the least of it."

"Look, the tariffs are much more powerful than the rare earth," said Trump. "The rare earth is a disturbance, but there's a lot of rare earth around. I'll tell you, I've had more calls on rare earth. We've got it."

Trump, on the other hand, expressed concern over global stockpiles of nuclear weapons. “We have the most nuclear weapons. Russia's second, China is actually third by a long way, but they'll be even within four or five years,” said Trump, saying that is “too many.”

U.S. President Donald J. Trump meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Oct. 22. [EPA/YONHAP]

Trump also said the summit would address China’s oil imports from Russia, mentioning that the U.S. president had canceled a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

“It didn't feel right to me,” Trump said. “It didn't feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get, so I canceled it. But we'll do it in the future.”

Regarding U.S. sanctions on Russia, Trump said, “I think that they'll certainly have an impact,” adding that they are “massive sanctions.”

“It takes two to tango, as they say, and we're going to find out,” said Trump, expressing his hopes it'll push both Putin and Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky to be more “reasonable.”

Trump added that Xi is “a very strong leader of a very big country” and that he thinks Xi “can have a big influence, and we will certainly be talking about Russia, Ukraine.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, from left, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping talk ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit at the Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Center in Tianjin, China, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. [AP/YONHAP]

Trump also referenced Korea while discussing trade deals, saying it was one of the countries that “were taking so much money away from us.”

Trump claimed other countries “have taken advantage of us over many, many decades, over many decades,” adding that the United States is now “a rich country” and that “we’re taking in money like we've never done before.”

“Without tariffs, uh that would not be happening,” said Trump. “And also I solved, as you know, eight wars. Of the eight, five of them, maybe even six of them are because of tariffs.”

“Tariffs are vital to this country and tariffs have been used against us by China by every other country and all we're doing is using them to negotiate fair deals,” said Trump. “And as you know, we made a fair deal with Japan. We made a fair deal with all of Europe, the European Union. We made a fair deal with South Korea.”

While the United States has signed trade agreements with Japan and the European Union, negotiations with Korea remain in the final stages.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY CHO MUN-GYU [[email protected]]