When President Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping later Wednesday, he will be extending a hand to a leader that Washington and national security experts have identified as the biggest threat to American global dominance.

Trump’s main priorities in courting Xi are advancing a trade deal, securing American access to Chinese critical minerals, increasing Chinese purchases of U.S. agriculture and finalizing the Chinese sale of TikTok.

For Xi, reducing or eliminating U.S. tariffs and avoiding additional export restrictions on sensitive American technology are at the forefront, while also pushing for Trump to hew closer to Beijing’s position toward Taiwan.

Trump is projecting positivity ahead of his meeting with Xi, which will take place in Busan, South Korea, and marks the first time the two leaders have seen each other face-to-face in six years.

“That's a big, big meeting, and I think it's going to work out very well, actually. I think it's going to be great for everybody,” Trump said at a dinner with business leaders Tuesday in Tokyo.

Republicans hawkish on China are working to reinforce their positions ahead of Trump’s minisummit with Xi. Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), the chair of the House Select committee on competition with China, warned Xi is unlikely to completely hand over control of TikTok to an independent American company.

“I believe Xi Jinping views this as a strategic asset,” he said Sunday on CBS’s "Face the Nation."

“That's why he didn't want to sell it to some of the other American companies that were interested in purchasing it. So as long as they're involved, I think we have to recognize that TikTok, even an American version, still could be open to influence from the Chinese Communist Party.”

Other Republicans are pointing to Beijing’s willingness to restrict the export of rare earth minerals — critical for the U.S. — as reinforcing the true nature of Xi’s ambitions for global dominance.

“China has wielded its dominance of rare earth production as a geopolitical weapon many times before,” Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) wrote in an op-ed for Newsweek last week.

“These new export controls are not simply a retaliatory measure in the........

© The Hill