‘Join hands instead of letting go’: Xi Jinping on trade after tariff-slashing deal with Donald Trump

The Chinese leader was speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum on Friday in South Korea’s Gyeongju.

Xi said that trade should “actively seek more points of convergence of interests and support the opening up and development of supply chains,” according to a Bloomberg report. He added, “We must adhere to the principle of joining hands rather than letting go, and extending rather than breaking supply chains,” and urged the member nations gathered at the summit to practice “genuine multilateralism.”

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Xi-Trump meeting

His remarks come a day after he sealed a deal with Trump that led the US to slash some tariffs and export controls, and China to agree to buy US soybeans and pause fresh rare earth curbs. Notably, Trump described his meeting with Xi as “amazing,” while the Chinese leader said that dialogue is always better than confrontation.

Beijing said that the deal also involved a US commitment to postpone a new measure for a year that would have prevented thousands of Chinese firms from accessing US technology if they are partly owned by a sanctioned company, a move that China strongly opposed.