Xi Jinping’s decision to stand his ground against Donald Trump could hardly have gone any better for the Chinese leader.

US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that “there was no discussion on currency” during trade talks with China over the weekend. Total US tariffs on China will remain at about 40 per cent under the ceasefire while Chinese tariffs on the US would be about 25 per cent, Capital Economics calculated.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva heads to Beijing this week to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping, seeking to tighten relations between the two nations while leveraging U.S. President Donald Trump's unpredictable trade policies to boost exports of grains,