Author: Hanna Duggal, Marium Ali
Published on: 13/05/2026 | 00:00:00
AI Summary:
US president Donald Trump will meet Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 14 and 15. The talks are expected to focus on trade relations and mark the first time a US president has visited China in nearly a decade. In recent decades, the US and China have emerged as the world’s dominant superpowers. China is outpacing its Western counterpart in many regards. US and China are significant trading partners, exchanging more than $500bn worth of goods in 2025. As it stands, the average effective US tariff on imports from China is about 31.6 percent, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model. China has imposed a series of tariffs on key US energy and agricultural exports. The 2008 global financial crisis was a turning point for the US. China’s debt has also grown, but more steadily, from about 22 percent of GDP in 2000 to about 34 percent in 2009. Both countries saw their debt levels surge dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. The US allowed trillions of dollars in relief spending in the form of business loans and unemployment benefits. The US is the world’s second-largest energy consumer. In 2024, the country of nearly 350 million people consumed 26,349 TWh. China spent $290bn on green energy, while the US spent $97bn. China holds the world’s largest rare earth mineral reserves, with an estimated 44 million tonnes of known rare earth oxide deposits in 2024. China also dominates the processing of rare earths globally, meaning even minerals mined elsewhere often get sent to China to be refined, giving it influence well beyond just what is in the ground. Beijing has managed to outpace Washington in rare earth mining because it faces less obstacles. China is part of a number of organisations jointly, such as the UN Security Council, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the G20 and APEC. China is also part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and BRICS.
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