China Buys American Soybeans Before Trump-Xi Meeting 

After President Trump secured a rare-earths deal and new U.S. investments during his Asia tour in Japan, he met with South Korea’s top leadership on Wednesday to discuss boosting America’s shipbuilding industry, including a potential $350 billion investment in the U.S. The meeting comes just one day before Trump is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Ahead of the highly anticipated Trump-Xi meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, Beijing appears to be extending a gesture of goodwill, including the purchase of at least two cargo shipments of U.S. soybeans.

Reuters reports that China’s state-owned COFCO purchased about 180,000 metric tons of soybeans for December and January shipment through Pacific Northwest port terminals. This marks China’s first purchase of U.S. soybeans from this year’s harvest and comes after the world’s second-largest economy had pivoted away from American supplies in favor of Brazilian and Argentine beans.

Via Bloomberg

Soybean futures in Chicago advanced 2.3% on Monday, followed by another 1.5% gain on Tuesday, climbing above $11 a bushel, a 15-month high. Contracts stalled on Wednesday ahead of the Trump-Xi meeting. In recent years, contracts have tumbled because of China’s sourcing pivot toward South America. 

On Sunday, Bessent told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker that China was ready to make a deal “after two days of negotiations.” He noted at the time that the “successful framework” was prepared for the Trump-Xi meeting. “I’m also anticipating that we will get some kind of a deferral on the rare earth export controls that the Chinese had discussed,” he said, adding, “I think we are going to be able to discuss substantial soybean and [agriculture] purchases for our American farmers.”

.@SecScottBessent on talks with China: “I think we have addressed the farmers’ concerns — and I’m not going to get ahead of the President, but I believe when the announcement of the deal with China is made public, that our soybean farmers will feel very good.” pic.twitter.com/8n6Tj4U2qk

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 26, 2025

Additional signs of cooling Sino-US trade tensions came from an overnight headline via WSJ that discussed Trump’s move to lower tariffs on China in exchange for restricting the Chinese export of fentanyl precursor chemicals that end up on the streets of America and fuel the drug death overdose crisis, killing 100,000 per year. 

“I expect to be lowering that because I believe that they’re going to help us with the fentanyl situation,” Trump told reporters during a Tokyo-Gyeongju flight earlier. “They’re going to be doing what they can do.”

Cryptocurrency-based prediction market Polymarket has odds of around 78% that Trump secures a trade deal with China tomorrow. 

All indications and messaging from the White House suggest that securing a US-China trade deal tomorrow is highly likely.