Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are meeting at the White House on Thursday, four months after they last met in Beijing and less than a year after the two countries pulled back from a fresh trade war. Xi’s visit is his first to Washington in more than a decade.
The meeting comes as both sides try to keep their trade deal alive. The US and China agreed on Wednesday to extend the deal by two months, giving negotiators more time to work toward a bigger deal. But expectations for a major breakthrough remain low, with trade, rare earth minerals, technology and artificial intelligence among the issues on the table.
JUST IN: Trump and Xi are set to meet at the White House today.
The main bilateral meeting is scheduled for 11:30 AM ET.
Markets will be watching closely for any developments around trade, tariffs and other areas that could impact global risk sentiment.Bitcoin and the broader… pic.twitter.com/ERWYHbJpgK
— CryptoSavingExpert ® (@CryptoSavingExp) September 24, 2026
The relationship had looked very different last October. Trump threatened to impose a 100% tariff on Chinese goods after Beijing announced new controls on rare earth minerals, which are used in products ranging from semiconductors to defence equipment. China threatened to retaliate, but both countries soon stepped back and reached the trade truce that brought tensions down.
Trump and Xi met again in Beijing in May, where they discussed trade and other areas of tension. Trump also invited Xi to Washington during that visit. Four months later, Xi is back in the US, but neither side is coming to the table with the same position it had last year. China has continued to post strong trade numbers and still controls much of the world’s supply of rare earth minerals, giving Beijing important leverage in the talks.
Also Read: Canada Hits Back at Trump: Why Are Markets Still Ignoring the Trade War?
China isn’t the only country feeling Trump’s tariff pressure
A pattern has formed across nearly every major US trading relationship this year, an opening threat, retaliation or pushback from the other side, followed by a negotiated truce that quiets things down without actually resolving the underlying dispute. Today’s summit fits into that same pattern, which is part of why expectations for anything beyond symbolism are low.
The approach Trump is taking with China isn’t unique to China, as Canada, one of America’s closest trading partners, has been hit with the same playbook.
In January, Trump threatened 100% tariffs on all Canadian goods over Canada’s trade relationship with China. By July, that threat became real in a different form involving a 50% tariff on a wide range of Canadian products, from cars to alcohol to cement, with US officials accusing Canada of unfairly discriminating against American goods.
Bitcoin has a track record of reacting to exactly this kind of news
For crypto traders, this summit is worth watching closely, because Bitcoin has moved hard on US-China trade headlines all year, in both directions. When Trump first threatened the 100% tariff on China last October, Bitcoin crashed from around 117,000 dollars to below 108,000 dollars in a matter of hours, with some coins losing 20 to 40% of their value the same day.
Just days later, once Trump softened his tone and said relations with China “will all be fine,” Bitcoin recovered to around 115,000 dollars. That pattern repeated back in May, when the US and China first agreed to cut tariffs during trade talks in Geneva, Bitcoin jumped nearly 2,000 dollars within 90 minutes of the announcement, part of a broader rally that saw it climb roughly 10% in a single week.
One crypto analyst described this as Bitcoin acting like a “high-beta macro hedge,” reacting to political headlines the same way stock markets do, not just to crypto specific news. Given how symbolic today’s summit is expected to be, the more relevant moment for traders may not be the handshake itself, but whatever comes out of it in writing, since that’s what tends to actually move the price.
Crypto users expect markets to react before the news
Crypto users are already expecting sharp market moves as Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington. Joe said global markets are “definitely bracing for some volatility,” pointing to the possibility that traders could quickly adjust their positions as details from the meeting emerge.
Alpha had a similar view, saying traders have their “eyes on the White House” and should expect market moves driven by headlines. In other words, even a short comment from Trump or Xi on trade could move prices before markets have the full picture.
Junaid focused on how quickly crypto traders tend to react, saying markets will “probably react before anyone reads the full statement.” His point is that traders may buy or sell based on the first headlines from the meeting, even before they know exactly what both leaders have agreed.
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