Arriving in Beijing a year after my last visit, it seemed like the last thing on people’s minds was whether Xi Jinping was likely to do a “big, beautiful deal” with Donald Trump in South Korea on 30 October.

Over the weekend, the US said both countries had agreed on the framework of a potential trade deal, which would cover topics including TikTok’s US operations , China ‘s rare earth minerals controls and Trump’s threats to raise tariffs on China further.

Teams from the US and China negotiated in Malaysia while Trump’s entourage was there. A deal has been drafted. So both sides, on paper at least, have something they can agree on. New Feature

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But, as one Chinese think tanker explained to me, it’s now down to the “big leaders”

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