'All-powerful' Trump isn't such a big shot in Asia

The world can breathe a small sigh of relief. There is not going to be a war between its two biggest economies, at least not yet.

- MARY DEJEVSKY

The US and Chinese presidents both looked quietly pleased as they staged a protracted handshake for the cameras ahead of their meeting in the South Korean port of Busan. Donald Trump was typically hyperbolic, describing the meeting as “12 out of 10”, and “a great success”; Xi Jinping said the two sides had reached “a consensus” and expressed hopes for partnership, while admitting that differences exist.

The specifics suggest that China is delaying the controls it had announced on exports of rare earths, while Trump has agreed to delay the introduction of punitive, 100 per cent tariffs, and to reduce tariffs on goods the US regards as being linked to the drug fentanyl. China has committed to increasing imports of US agricultural goods.

It appears that the talks concentrated on immediate bilateral economic issues, with China’s stance on Russia and the Ukraine war, as well as its intentions towards Taiwan - the central security issue in US-China relations - apparently being parked as too difficult for the current encounter.

But even the limited degree of progress apparently made is not nothing. That the meeting should happen at all was never to be taken for granted, and while the results look more like a holding operation than a breakthrough, the agreement to continue talking is positive.