In reality, President Xi may have other ideas. While US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushes China to light a fire under consumer spending and the White House touts Trump’s Asia trip as a ringing success, China’s latest five-year plan appears to show Trump’s rebalancing dream to be—as far as Beijing is concerned— a fantasy.

Countries worldwide are buying more than ever from China, but domestic consumption is lagging and government stimulus efforts aren’t working.

The United States and China are not going to resolve all the issues that divide them before presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping meet Thursday in Busan, South Korea.

China is more interested in expansionism than solving its own pressing economic and social issues, and Taiwan is determined to defend itself from Chinese aggression, the island's top security official said on Tuesday.

Beijing is fighting to limit the damage from a pattern of price wars and excess capacity across multiple industries.

A further increase in China’s trade surplus failed to fully offset the effects of a worsening housing market, which has left consumers wary.

China’s economy is struggling with excessive debt, deflation, excess capacity, and a rapidly aging population. China continues to rely on exports to support economic growth. China has been increasingly accused of dumping its excess production in world markets. This is exacerbating trade frictions, especially with the US.

China has reported that its economy expanded at the slowest annual pace in a year in July-September, growing 4.8%, weighed down by trade tensions with the United States and slack domestic demand.

Billionaire Ray Dalio said the majority of the population was "almost becoming useless or unproductive" to the future economy.

Higher interest rates, market volatility and geopolitical tensions are all on the horizon as trust breaks down between countries, according to Commonwealth Bank chief economist Luke Yeaman.

President Trump said that the U.S. expects to lower tariffs on China in exchange for cooperation in cracking down on the export of chemicals used to produce fentanyl.Trump said that he would discuss such an agreement when he meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday.