Trump went to China to protect the US economy – and walked away with nothing

Chongqing was, until fairly, recently another industrial city in Western China, relatively obscure in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Today, the city is a sprawling metropolis, attracting tourists and influencers from around the world to marvel at its layered architecture and feats of engineering.

China has changed since Donald Trump visited last in 2017, striding ahead with mega projects and new economic partnerships to put the country on a par with the United States.

While deep issues remain, the leadership is confident of its new place in the world, as the United States grapples with challenges of deindustrialisation, foreign influence and its own identity.

Returning to Beijing this week, Donald Trump put trade at the heart of talks with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, hoping to secure tangible results and beef up approval ratings ahead of the November midterms.

But it was China that appeared to hold the cards as Trump left without a major breakthrough from a confident power emboldened to set the terms of a “new positioning” with the US.

Trump’s team arrived in Beijing on Wednesday night with a cohort of senior US business execs in tow, hoping to resolve trade differences and win China’s support on a number of foreign policy matters.

Last time, Trump was courted by the Chinese, offered lavish ceremony and unprecedented access to the Forbidden City, and left with announced deals and memoranda totalling over $250bn.

At the time, analysts cast the result as good optics for Washington, but unlikely to meaningfully reset a trade deficit.

There was less to say of the 2026 visit, however, with no headline deal to speak of. This week’s summit was largely about keeping the economic relationship stable, but analysts were concerned that Trump left with some key issues still up in the air.

No discussion of tariffs

In 2016, the United States did more business with China than any other country. The average US tariff on Chinese goods sat at roughly 3%, allowing American consumers to benefit from cheap essentials.

Trump changed that arrangement in his first term, imposing import taxes on Chinese goods and encouraging American firms to shift production.

Now, even after coming down from the triple-digit levels they briefly hit last year, tariffs on China are still at almost 48%, according to Chad Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The leaders struck a truce last October for Washington to lower tariffs in exchange for China keeping rare earths flowing, but that agreement is set to expire in November.

When asked if the two sides extended the truce beyond later this year, Trump said he and Xi “did not discuss tariffs”.

Such an extension would be “the most basic benchmark” for the success of the summit, said Patricia Kim, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution.

No clarity on rare earths

Trump also left without official resolution to the rare earths supply issue that has strained relations since China imposed export controls in response to Trump’s tariff barrage in April 2025.

Beijing’s controls have caused shortages for US chipmakers and aerospace companies despite the ‘truce’ agreed last year.

China produces roughly 90 per cent of the world’s processed rare earths and magnets. Rare earths are vital materials in modern technologies from electric vehicles to radars, F-35 fighter jets, Tomahawk missiles, submarines and semiconductors.

A younger China may have been wary of disrupting its exports of the valuable earths to the United States. But today, the impasse shows Beijing’s ability to squeeze Washington without military action.

The US has been pushing to develop new domestic supply chains, but still lacks the ability to separate heavy rare earths at home.

Few major wins for the tech bros and big business

Trump arrived in Beijing flanked by members of his administration and a delegation of top American business leaders, including Apple’s Tim Cook, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg and Tesla’s Elon Musk.

Deals could still follow in the coming days. But during the trip, even the deal touted as the biggest single deliverable underwhelmed.

Boeing stock fell 4 per cent when Trump said on Thursday that China would ​buy 200 Boeing jets, significantly fewer than the roughly 500 expected. He later told reporters that China had said it would potentially buy up to 750 planes, but there was no fixed commitment. Boeing’s shares fell a further 0.9 per cent in pre-market trading on Friday.

There were also no signs of a breakthrough on selling Nvidia’s advanced H200 AI chips to China, despite CEO Jensen Huang’s dramatic last-minute addition to the trip.

US officials also said they had agreed deals to sell farm goods and made progress on mechanisms to manage future trade, with both sides expected to identify $30 billion of non-sensitive goods.

Trump played up the likelihood of China buying oil from the United States and his energy secretary said China had “agreed that they want to buy oil from the United States”. But there was no comment from the Chinese foreign ministry on Friday and no clear figure.

One senior American business leader based in China, who asked not to be named, told the Financial Times that broader trade deals would be welcomed by the business community, but companies still need “clarity” on timelines and the issue of rare earths.

Xi told American leaders this week that China’s door to business “will only open wider and wider”. But there were few clear commitments to hold up as a win.