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.

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

Top trade negotiators for the US and China said they came to terms on a range of contentious points, setting the table for leaders Donald Trump and Xi Jinping to finalize a deal and ease trade tensions that have rattled global markets.

Mr Xi is firmly in charge, and unabashed about showing the party and the world that he will dump anyone deemed to be a bad actor. It was unclear what, exactly, the purged officials had done to deserve their punishment.

Gold fell more than 2% to a three-week low on Tuesday, as optimism over easing trade tensions lifted risk appetite and squeezed demand for safe-haven bullion, while investors turned their attention to the Federal Reserve policy meeting this week.

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.

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned of rising uncertainties as the Communist Party approved its next five-year plan, emphasizing technological innovat

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.