Xi holds court at APEC summit… …Trump touts rare-earth win

SOUTH KOREA PLAYED host but all eyes were on China’s Xi Jinping at an annual gathering of Pacific Rim leaders on Friday, where he met his Canadian, Japanese and Thai counterparts after securing a fragile trade truce with US President Donald Trump.

- REUTERS

That agreement, struck just before Trump left South Korea, skipping the main two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, cooled spiralling tensions between the world’s two largest economies that jolted global commerce.

With Trump hosting the White House’s annual Halloween party back in Washington, Xi sought to cast China as the predictable champion of free and open trade at the forum, a role the US has dominated for decades.