China’s Xi Jinping took centre stage at an annual gathering of Pacific Rim leaders in South Korea on Friday, expected to hold talks with Canadian, Japanese, and Thai counterparts after securing a fragile trade truce with US President Donald Trump.

That agreement, struck just before Trump left South Korea, skipping the main two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, will suspend further curbs on China’s exports of rare earths that threatened to jam up global supply chains.

Bolstering supply chains and reducing trade barriers is a key focus of the talks, hosted in the historic town of Gyeongju. Yet decisions made at the 21-member economic club are non-binding and finding consensus has become increasingly difficult due to geopolitical strains.

"Changes unseen in a century are accele

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