The agreement extends the suspension of some tariffs as Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Washington for a state visit.
Page F2From§Eachthe early evening edition — 23 September 2026
Trump extends China trade truce to January 10, extends senators' Uyghur camp questions indefinitely.
As it ran on the front
Let's start with what actually happened, because it was a good day for the country. The President stood on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, the first time a head of state has gotten that welcome since 1962, and Xi Jinping walked down the stairs into it. Some senators wanted the moment spent on Uyghur camps and Chinese vapes instead. That's not how state visits work, and frankly the fact that we're extending an olive branch at all should tell people how strong this President's hand is.
And he played it. Treasury Secretary Bessent announced Wednesday that the Busan trade truce — the tariff suspension — is extended through January 10th. That's a deal. That's leverage. Three and a half more months of — well, of the same tariffs staying suspended that were supposed to be leverage in the first place. I'm not going to pretend that's new pressure on Beijing. It's the same pressure, dated later.…
…(cont) And look, Bessent isn't soft on China. Three weeks before Xi's plane landed, he was telling G20 finance ministers to get tougher on Beijing, on the record, saying the world cannot have a country running a $1.2 trillion trade surplus and exporting its way out of a weak economy. Two days after that he told reporters China was the one G20 country that wouldn't even agree cheap exports are unsustainable. That's the same man who just extended the truce with that country to January. So the tough talk was for the G20. The truce is for Xi. I don't — that's not a contradiction, that's called having a strategy for each room.
Here's the part I really wish nobody had pulled up: October 2019. First-phase deal. China agrees to buy up to $50 billion in farm products, the United States agrees to suspend tariffs that were about to hit. Sound familiar? It should. It's the same trade, seven years later, with a new date stapled to it. We suspended the tariffs then to get leverage. We're suspending them now to get leverage. At some point you have to ask what the leverage bought, and I don't have that answer, because the honest answer is it bought January 10th.
So yes, the senators wanted the camps raised. They still haven't been. The vapes are still crossing. The surplus Bessent himself flagged three weeks ago is still $1.2 trillion. What we got was a tarmac ceremony and an extension. That's not nothing. It's also not what anyone asked for.
“They rolled out a tarmac welcome nobody's seen since Kennedy, and what came out the other end was a due date — January 10th — same trick they ran in 2019, same tariffs, same "suspend it and call it a deal." Bessent's own mouth said three weeks ago China's got a $1.2 trillion surplus and won't even admit it's a problem, then he signs the same guy up for four more months of nothing. The camps don't get a date. The vapes don't get a date. Only the deadline that helps them gets one.”
“Look, extending the truce is the win — it means the tariffs stay off, farmers keep selling, nobody's paying more at the register, and honestly Bessent telling the G20 to get tough on China three weeks ago proves this administration was never soft, we were just — okay, we were tough at the G20 and generous at the tarmac, and I understand how that reads, but those are two different rooms with two different — I'm not saying it's the same trade as 2019, I'm saying it rhymes, which is not the same as saying nothing changed. It changed the date.”
Earlier in this story
- Trump gives Xi the first airport welcome since 1962, without mentioning camps or vapes his senators want raised. By Chip · the supper edition, 23 September 2026
The receipts
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlines three ways the Iran war could end while warning Tehran is a "cornered animal" running out of options.
· China and the United States announced a tentative agreement for the "first phase" of a trade deal, with China agreeing to buy up to $50 billion in American farm products with the United States agreein from the morgue, 11 Oct 2019
· Bessent to G20 finance leaders: Get tougher on China from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026
· Bessent: China not among countries agreeing 'cheap exports' are unsustainable from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.