WSJ What’s News - What Xi’s New Playbook for Trump Means for U.S.-China Trade

Episode Date: October 24, 2025

P.M. Edition for Oct. 24. During President Trump’s second term, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has adopted a playbook for dealing with the U.S. president that’s offered concessions but also hits back harder. WSJ chief China correspondent Lingling Wei discusses how that’s played out so far, and what it means for the upcoming meeting between the two leaders. Plus, investors are loving Intel again—its stock has almost doubled this year; the company has announced investments from SoftBank, Nvidia and the U.S. government; and yesterday’s earnings report showed momentum. But as WSJ Heard on the Street writer Asa Fitch tells us, that may not be enough to fix the company’s troubles. And the Pentagon said it is sending the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier to the Caribbean, a major escalation of the Trump administration’s military campaign in the region. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Boardrooms love buzzwords. AI, climate, resilience. But what do they actually mean for CFOs and execs trying to survive the next earnings call? That's where the pre-read comes in. Real experts and real talk. Subscribe to the pre-read. Presented by Workieva. The Pentagon orders an aircraft carrier to the Caribbean, an escalation of the Trump administration's campaign to target drug smugglers there.

Plus, yesterday's earnings may break a losing source. streak for Intel, but the company's problems aren't solved yet. And how Chinese leader Xi Jinping has recalibrated his relationship with President Trump ahead of next week's summit in South Korea. The U.S. seems to be trying to figure a way to deal with the very aggressive rare earth measures put forward by the Chinese to reassert their position in this relationship. It's Friday, October 24th. I'm Alex Oscella for the Wall Street Journal.

This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. We begin this evening in Washington, where the Pentagon has said that it's sending the Navy's most advanced aircraft carrier to the Caribbean. A Pentagon spokesman said today that Defense Secretary Pete Higgseth has ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier, which is currently deployed in the Mediterranean, to the Caribbean, bringing dozens more fighters. and surveillance aircraft, along with other Navy warships that accompany a carrier. The dispatch of a carrier is the strongest sign yet that President Trump is serious about striking targets on land, in what, according to two Navy officials, his administration has said is an effort to destroy drug smuggling operations.

And Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters today that his government is ready to resume trade talks when the U.S. is ready, and that his government would pick up where they had left off before President Trump ended negotiations yesterday. Tonight, President Trump heads to Asia, where he's expected to meet with a number of foreign leaders. One of those, as we mentioned on this morning show, is Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The two haven't met in person since 2019,

and this summit could shake out pretty differently, thanks to a new diplomatic playbook that she has embraced that's tailored specifically for Trump. WSJ chief China correspondent Ling Ling Wei is here now to discuss. Ling Ling, what was the dynamic between Xi and Trump during Trump's first term? During Trump's first term, China was constantly in this very reactive posture. So Xi Jinping was frequently put off balance by President Trump's very high-handed pressure tactics. Xi Jinping was always on the back foot.

During the second term, the Chinese embraced a playbook that helped the Chinese break this very reactive posture. And this involves Xi Jinping really catering to President Trump's personal likings and the same time be very assertive and aggressive in terms of hitting back at any U.S. policy the Chinese leadership considers harmful. So it's a mixture of pressure and appeasement. One example that comes to mind involves rare earth materials, which China dominates,

and it recently applied strict export controls over. Is that a place where we've seen this new approach play out? Absolutely, Alex. That was the most powerful example so far. Earlier this month, China dramatically tightened their control over those minerals. It's also Xi Jinping's way of trying to gain leverage over Trump before this very crucial meeting in South Korea next week.

Right. Let's talk about this meeting because it seems like it's something that the Chinese side was really pushing for. So what can we expect to come out of this? Despite the trade ceasefire right now, the relationship is very fragile. So the most realistic outcome for now for this meeting is an extension of the current trade truth, meaning both sides still refrain from imposing higher tariffs on each other.

China would continue to allow rare earth flows to the United States. The Chinese may also want reassurance from the U.S. side that there won't be any more policies deemed harmful by the Chinese as long as both sides are still negotiating for a broader economic deal. Going forward, the risk of China overplaying its hand definitely is rising. The most recent rare earth measures from Beijing stirred up huge reactions, not just from the United States, but also in Europe and Asia. because everybody was wondering if China is reliable anymore.

And China's heavy-handed display could embolden the very heartliners in Washington. The Chinese want to sidestep the China hawks who were proposing much harsher policy toward China. That was WSJ Chief China correspondent, Ling Ling Wei. Thanks, Ling Ling. Thank you so much. U.S. indexes hit record highs today. The Dow rose more than 470 points, or about 1%, closing above 47,000 for the first time. The S&P 500 added about 0.8 percent, and the NASDAQ was up about 1.2 percent. Investor enthusiasm was buoyed after the Labor Department said that consumer

prices rose 3 percent from a year earlier, the fastest pace since January, but below economist's expectations of a 3.1 percent rise. Coming up, why investors' recent love for Intel might not be enough to fix the troubled business. That's after the break. In today's market, one of the most precious commodities you can add to your portfolio is certainty, the kind you get with a multi-year guarantee annuity from American National Insurance Company. Your money grows at a steady rate, guaranteed, no hidden fees, no market risk, No surprises. Just a bedrock of certainty you can depend on to be there when you need it most.

You can get more details and fund an annuity online at annuities.americanational.com. You got this. Investors seem to be betting that Intel is too important to fail. Yesterday, the company reported an unexpected profit for its third quarter, driving up its stock price. But Intel's recent successes don't guarantee that the company will ultimately succeed. Its third quarter profit is the first after six straight quarterly losses, the longest such streak in decades. For more, I'm joined now by WSJ Hurd on the street writer, Asa Fitch. Asa Intel has had a lot of good news this year.

In addition to that positive third quarter, it got an equity investment and partnership with NVIDIA last month, and an investment earlier this year from the U.S. government and SoftBank. And yet, you're right that that might not be enough to fix the company. Why is that? Investors are giving Intel a lot of cash right now, which is great for Intel. Intel needs money. It's been losing money for a long time. But the fundamental problems with the business are still there. The company has fallen behind its rivals, TSM in Taiwan and Samsung in South Korea. This money doesn't really allow it by itself to come back. So investors are really rewarded. awarding Intel before, it's shown a real sign of executing a turnaround under its new CEO. Are there signs that Intel is catching up to those rivals?

Intel has had some good news on the manufacturing side recently with its most advanced chipmaking process with the smallest transistors. But TSM, the leader in chipmaking in the world, has a competitive process that's on the way. It's not clear how Intel will measure up to that. What's more concerning is how Intel is going to make a business out of these new chips. In the chip industry, it's not just enough to be able to make a great chip. It also has to make financial sense. If you're running factories that produce chips that cost a ton of money to make, your margins are going to be pretty slim. What would need to happen in this competitive space for Intel to get a leg up here?

The thing that would really help Intel would be if TSM really stumbled. And there's no real evidence that TSM is going to stumble. Nobody is sitting still and letting Intel catch up. Everybody's moving forward. So Intel doesn't need to just catch up. It needs to move a lot faster than its competition. So Intel's got all this investment. What can we expect to see from the company in the coming year or so?

So next year we'll really be a test of how Intel's newest chips and its new manufacturing process performs in the world. people have a lot better sense of how it's doing from a performance standpoint. It's up to Intel to try to prove that they can work in this field. And also they need to prove they can attract external customers, the likes of Nvidia or Apple, to actually come in and use its chips that are made in its factories. Wall Street Journal heard on the street writer Asa Fitch. Thanks so much.

Thank you. In other news, we're exclusively. reporting that senior White House and Navy officials are in early discussions to replace the current mix of warships with a new fleet that would be better suited to counter China and other potential future threats. That's according to former and current officials. The officials also said that President Trump, who has previously criticized the look of modern warships, is involved in the plans. The people said that the new fleet, which Navy officials have dubbed Golden Fleet, would be made up of a number of large warships outfitted with more powerful long

range missiles, along with smaller ships. And New York Attorney General Letitia James pleaded not guilty to charges of mortgage fraud in court in Virginia today, where a judge said that the trial would begin January 26th. Speaking outside the courthouse after the proceeding, James said Trump, who had urged the Justice Department to prosecute her, was abusing the legal system for political gain. And finally, to achieve his vision of securing seemingly endless. computing power for OpenA.I., its CEO, Sam Altman, has gone on a deal-making blitz. He's played the egos of Silicon Valley's giants off one another, resulting in a game of

financial one-upmanship that has tied the fates of the world's biggest semiconductor and cloud companies and vast swaths of the U.S. economy to OpenAI. All of them are now betting on the success of a startup that is nowhere near turning a profit and facing a mounting list of business challenges. Berber Jin, who covers startups and venture capital for the journal, told our Tech News Briefing podcast how Altman is able to convince these companies to bet money on him. This is kind of what Altman loves to do. He's been doing it his whole career. He was a venture capitalist before becoming CEO of OpenAI. He's very good at selling a vision as well. He has these natural qualities of a deal maker. And a lot of these deals come down to the

basic element of human psychology, the fear of missing out. We reported that after Sam Altman and Masayoshi Sun announced Stargate at the White House, that caught the attention of Jensen Huang at NVIDIA, and that kicked off the discussions that culminated in this huge $100 billion deal announced last month. And he was talking as well to Broadcom and AMD. What he's done is independently tied all of these companies to OpenAI, having them compete against one another. So it very much is this kind of dance where he's daring each player to go bigger, promising them if they buy into his vision, they could end up making a lot of money. To hear more from Berber, listen to today's episode of Tech News Briefing. And that's what's news for this week. Tomorrow you can look out for

our weekly markets wrap-up, What's News and Markets? Then on Sunday, we'll be discussing the expanding universe of survival prep and how, in a world filled with growing threats, governments and people are increasingly finding that being prepared is just plain prudent. That's in What's New Sunday. And we'll be back with our regular show on Monday morning. Today's show is produced by Pierre Biennameh and Zoe Colkin, with supervising producer, Jana Heron. Michael LaValle wrote our theme music.

Jessica Fenton is our technical manager. Isha El Muslim is our development producer. Chris Zinsley is our deputy editor. And Falana Patterson is the Wall Street Journal's head of news audio. I'm Alex Osala. Thanks for listening. Nearly home, isn't home where we all want to be. Reba here for Realtor.com, the pro's number one most trusted app.

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