A US-China summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping is all but confirmed to take place in late September as originally scheduled. In this case, the two nations are expected to engage in fierce, unyielding debate once again—covering a full range of economic issues, such as the artificial intelligence and semiconductor industries, as well as geopolitical friction points including Taiwan and the South China Sea.

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US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a two-day summit in Beijing starting May 14. They are expected to meet again in Washington late this September / Photo courtesy of Xinhua News Agency

According to Beijing diplomatic sources familiar with bilateral relations on July 23, there are numerous reasons for this outlook. Above all, the two nations agreed to meet again in the United States during the second half of the year during their mid-May summit in Beijing, which took place after much adversity. Furthermore, President Trump personally stated right after that summit that he invited President Xi for September 24, a plan he reaffirmed on July 6 after returning to the United States.

China, having confirmed during the May summit that it could aggressively stand toe-to-toe with the United States, has no reason to decline a second meeting in Washington. Internally, Beijing is even reported to have finalized the schedule and formed a dedicated task force to prepare for the summit.

Under these circumstances, the fact that the foreign ministers of both nations met again on July 22 (local time) in Manila, Philippines—on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting—for the first time since their Munich meeting in February carries significant weight. It is safe to assume that a summit around September 24 is virtually set in stone. Given that the Munich meeting was used to coordinate President Trump's visit to China, this latest meeting undoubtedly focused on President Xi's upcoming visit to the United States, as foreign media reports confirm.

Following the meeting, Secretary Marco Rubio told reporters, "We spoke as much as possible about the September visit. That was really the key focus—laying the groundwork for another positive visit," making it clear that the US-China summit in Washington is locked in as planned.

Wang Yi, Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs and Minister of Foreign Affairs, did not explicitly confirm the exact details, but is reported to have maintained a similarly constructive stance during the talks. State-run Xinhua News Agency reported that "both sides agreed to fully utilize political and diplomatic channels to thoroughly prepare for upcoming high-level US-China exchanges, achieving practical progress in building a constructive bilateral relationship based on strategic stability."

According to sources, China is planning President Xi's first-ever in-person address at the UN General Assembly on September 24. Capitalizing on that momentum, Beijing plans to showcase China's status as a superpower on par with the United States at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit scheduled for mid-November in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. Considering President Xi's domestic and international schedule, a visit to the United States and a summit around September 24 have effectively become a reality.

                                                                                                           Hong Soon-do