I T IS THE start of the most important week of diplomacy for Donald Trump since he returned to office. A meeting between the American president and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, is planned for October 30th and comes after Mr Trump’s whistlestop tour of many of his country’s most important Asian allies.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says "walking away from Taiwan" is not on the agenda for this week's talks in South Korea between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. Newsweek reached out to the White House and to the Chinese Foreign Ministry via email for comment outside of regular office hours.

Investors sent major global indexes higher on optimism that President Trump and China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, could reach a wider agreement this week.

The interactions and mutual respect between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump have become the “most valuable strategic asset” in bilateral ties, the country’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Monday. Wang told this to US State Secretary Marco Rubio during a phone conversation, ahead of a summit between Xi and Trump.

With a military purge in Beijing before a major political meeting this week some analysts ask: whom can leader Xi Jinping trust?

Nearly one in six officials who had Central Committee seats were absent from a major conclave, many of them now disgraced.

President Donald Trump faces one of the toughest challenges of his second term when he meets Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday, where the world's two largest economies will seek to avert an escalation of their trade war.

Trump is scheduled to meet Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in South Korea, the White House confirmed last week. The high-stakes trade talks come as both leaders attempt to avoid further escalation in the ongoing trade war between the world’s two largest economies.