Vacationers go to the Nanjing Street Scenic Space in Shanghai, China, on October 20, 2025.
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Many individuals in China cheered the assembly Thursday between President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump, after months of escalating bilateral tensions.
Each time the 2 leaders meet, it helps ease tensions and creates a “optimistic ambiance,” Alex Hongcai Xu, chair of Beijing Honglve Consulting, mentioned in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. “This ambiance is helpful for negotiations.”
“Either side decreasing tariffs to beneath 10% would profit capital flows and cooperation,” Xu mentioned. He famous that China can seemingly purchase extra U.S. soybeans and U.S.-made Boeing airplanes.
Trump mentioned Thursday after the assembly that the U.S. would halve a 20% fentanyl-related tariff on China, bringing the overall responsibility on Chinese language items to 47%. That marked a pointy reversal from his earlier menace to impose an extra 100% tariffs on China beginning Saturday.
However Trump gave few particulars on whether or not the U.S. would encourage extra Chinese language funding, saying solely that “they’ve investments [in the U.S.] and they’re going to make investments.”
Xu mentioned he hoped Washington would enable extra Chinese language firms to speculate domestically, which he mentioned would create jobs within the U.S. and enhance home manufacturing whereas decreasing Chinese language exports.
Chinese language companies, for his or her half, have been in search of alternatives overseas because the home economic system slows.
“If the U.S. coverage will be extra sure, or provide the prospect of lowered tariffs, then not less than Chinese language investments in different nations can improve,” mentioned Luke Li, who works in energy-related manufacturing and commerce in Beijing, in accordance with a CNBC translation of his remarks in Chinese language.
“So long as they meet, there can be progress,” Li mentioned, noting that “we’re most centered on U.S. tariffs on China, whether or not this can be adjusted.”
As Xi and Trump met in South Korea Thursday morning native time, “China-U.S. leaders’ Busan Summit” was the highest trending hashtag on Weibo, a social media platform much like X.
“Curiosity Charge Minimize” was the second most-popular hashtag, whereas the fourth-ranked trending subject additionally centered on the Trump-Xi assembly.
A lot of the posts, nevertheless, have been by Chinese news outlets. Person feedback have been transient, reminiscent of “lengthy stay China-U.S. friendship” and “China-U.S. mutual success,” in accordance with a CNBC translation. It was unclear whether or not every remark represented a separate person.
On the fashionable Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, app, one of many few posts on the summit was by economist and frequent social media commentator Track Qinghui, who wrote in Chinese language: “Sit up for the early arrival of the China-U.S. honeymoon period.”
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Beijing restricts entry to X and plenty of different U.S. social media platforms, whereas sustaining tight management over home information shops.
Whereas Chinese language state media initially centered on Beijing’s latest space exploration plans and downplayed the Trump-Xi assembly — opting to focus on Xi’s attendance on the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation Financial Leaders’ assembly as a substitute — official protection ramped up after the talks started. The Chinese language international ministry did not verify the Trump-Xi assembly till Wednesday afternoon.
State broadcaster CCTV, which spent a lot of Thursday morning overlaying China’s newest Shenzhou-21 area mission, started sending common updates about the assembly solely after the 2 leaders met.
China’s official readout of Xi’s opening remarks mentioned Beijing was able to work with Washington, quoting Xi as saying that “China’s improvement and revitalization goes hand in hand with President Trump’s imaginative and prescient to ‘Make America Nice Once more.'”
“Trump [has been] overly assured. He does not pay attention,” Xu mentioned, referring to the U.S. president’s deal with ramping up tariffs.
“If the U.S. and China are in a multitude, can the U.S. turn into nice once more?” he mentioned. “No method.”
