Overview
- Senior U.S. and Chinese officials met in Kuala Lumpur and described their trade discussions as very constructive, with sessions set to continue as leaders prepare to meet.
- Trump is traveling to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, with plans in Kuala Lumpur to meet Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and join a Thailand–Cambodia peace accord signing at the ASEAN summit, according to the White House.
- A Trump–Xi session is scheduled for Oct. 30 on the sidelines of APEC in South Korea, where both sides will try to avert an escalation following Beijing’s new rare‑earth export controls.
- Trump has threatened to raise duties on Chinese imports to roughly 155 percent starting Nov. 1 if no deal is reached, and he says he will press Xi on fentanyl, Taiwan, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the case of Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai.
- Trump said he is open to meeting North Korea’s Kim Jong Un during the trip, while U.S. officials cautioned that no such meeting is on the schedule.