Key to this economic relationship will be $250 billion in new deals between U.S. companies and Chinese firms, the two leaders announced before reporters at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Thursday.

There, United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President XI Jinping applauded as business leaders between the two nations signed trade deals on electronics, aircraft and soybeans among other goods. Business leaders from the U.S. included representatives from Boeing, Ford and Goldman Sachs.

“China and U.S. are the two largest economies and big engines of global growth,” Xi remarked. “We need to strengthen cooperation, pursue stable and balanced economic and trade relations.”

NPR’s Scott Horsley, who is traveling with President Trump during his five-nation visit to Asia, says the former real-estate mogul thanked Xi for taking major strides in curbing North Korean aggression including suspending coal exports from the North and severing ties with banks operating there.

“We have a chance to strengthen ties and improve the lives of our citizens and stand together against those who threaten our civilization,” Trump said. “As long as we stand together, that threat will never happen. Doesn’t even stand a chance.”

Still, there are several issues Washington and Beijing need to address. Among them is China’s ever-growing presence on the disputed South China Sea. China claims virtually the entire area. It has also been establishing artificial islands and militarizing the region to the dismay of several Asian neighbors who also lay claims to parts of the South China Sea. Among those neighbors are other countries Trump will soon be visiting including Vietnam and The Philippines.

In the past, the U.S. has sent several warships to the region to defend freedom of navigation.

But Xi argues, “The U.S. and China are countries with important influence in the Asia-Pacific. As I said to the president, the Pacific Ocean is big enough to accommodate both of us.”

Trump also says he and Xi have enjoyed “great chemistry.”

But this newfound cooperation is in stark contrast to the stance Trump took during his presidential campaign run, when criticism of China was key to his platform. He previously accused China of being currency manipulators that boosted exports by weakening the renminbi compared to the U.S. dollar. However, Trump has since said he’s changed his mind on that issue.

Xi emphasized that while the two superpowers have major differences, there still are major opportunities to be “mutually reinforcing.”

Some fear that U.S.-Taiwan relations would be downgraded in exchange for a stronger Chinese stance against North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Katherine Chang, the minister for mainland affairs, tells the Washington Post that Taiwan could become a “bargaining chip” in such a case.

Currently, China views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has not ruled out force as a path to reunification. The U.S. has historically backed the “One China Policy” by refusing to diplomatically recognize Taiwan even though it has maintained an unofficial relationship involving trade.

Taiwan was not mentioned by either Trump or Xi during a joint news conference following their meeting on Thursday.

However, a number of Trump’s advisers have been known to be sympathetic to Taiwan’s concerns and grievances. In early December, Trump broke away from decades of tradition by making a congratulatory phone call to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen following her election victory. But, Trump has since said he will not engage with the Taiwanese president again without checking in with China first.

Furthermore, Trump and Xi have been enjoying an improved relationship, with Trump even saying both shared “great chemistry.” During a news conference in South Korea on Tuesday, Trump said Xi had “been trying very hard to solve the problem” with North Korea. In fact, the U.S. president has enjoyed some success where predecessors have failed on the North Korean issue. China, which is Pyongyang’s biggest trading partner, recently agreed to cut coal exports with the nation and sever ties with its banks.

When Trump was defending his call with Tsai Ing-wen, he had said that the U.S. stance on the One China Policy would depend on whether he can “make a deal” with Beijing on trade and other issues.

Still, the U.S. and Taiwan have enjoyed some good relations including a $1.42 billion weapons deal agreed on earlier this year. This is one of the reasons some diplomats feel a major shift in U.S. relations with Taiwan is unlikely.

Taipei is also looking forward to increase defense spending, establish a bi-lateral trade agreement with the U.S., and end all trade with North Korea.

But whether Taiwan can become a bargaining chip in the North Korean issue strongly depends on Xi’s decisions.

“Many have debated here in Taiwan whether President Trump will trade Taiwan in exchange for China’s position in North Korea,” said Alexander Huang, chairman of Taiwan’s Council on Strategic and Wargaming Studies. “But my hunch is that even if President Trump makes such an offer, President Xi would say no: ‘Taiwan is not in your hands. It’s in mine.’”

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China’s state run Global Times, which is often filled with nationalistic and pro-military rhetoric, recently ran an editorial calling for peace. It read, “Washington and Pyongyang have been intensifying hostile and threatening rhetoric against each other for some time. Their frequent saber-rattling, unimaginable in the past, is escalating tensions in Northeast Asia,”

No stranger to speaking his mind, President Donald Trump on Saturday issued to North Korea what many called a warning of war. Via a Twitter post, he slammed his predecessors for decades of failed negotiations and monetary incentives that only made the North Korean war machine stronger. “ … agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings fools of U.S. negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work!” he Tweeted.

Later on Tuesday, the U.S. sent two Air Force B-1B Lancer Bombers over the Korean peninsula — perhaps even visible from Kim Jong Un’s throne. The Hermit Kingdom has recently come under more sanctions after testing nuclear devices.

But for China, the war games and shouting matches are getting all too real.

Another state-run paper The People’s Daily ran an editorial warning, “War on the Korean Peninsula would be catastrophic, and dialogue remains the best option.” And although the article acknowledged “logic behind Trump’s threats,” it concluded that war can’t be the answer.

A day before that editorial ran, Hua Chunying said at a press conference, “The current situation on the Korean Peninsula remains highly complex and severe. We hope that various parties can strictly observe and implement the UN Security Council resolutions, refrain from provoking each other and aggravating the contradiction, exercise restraint and caution to ease the tension.”

“Chinese leaders see the U.S.-led world order, most notably the U.S. alliance network and promotion of U.S. values worldwide, as constraining China’s rise and are attempting to reshape the world order to better suit Chinese preferences and growing clout,” said an American intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity to Bloomberg.com.

The official cited China’s “One Belt, One Road,” trade initiative, its fierce territorial claims in the conflicted South China Sea, and its ongoing military expansion across the globe as key drivers in Beijing’s push for domination.

In fact, the official revealed China’s announcement to establish a military base in the African region of Djibouti may be just the beginning.

Officials tell Bloomberg, “China has the fastest-modernizing military in the world next to the United States” and this could open “new areas of intersection — and potentially conflicting — security interests between China and the United States and other countries abroad.”

The news comes as U.S. President Donald Trump prepares for his visit to Beijing next month and China’s President Xi Jingping seeks to secure power in the Communist Party Congress. Both men have thus far come to terms on a few issues– namely in response to North Korean aggression.

The Trump Administration has successfully persuaded China to push for stronger sanctions against Pyongyang and to allow investigations into Chinese banks accused of funding the nuclear-armed rogue state.

But in the fields of trade, they come at odds.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross already has initiated an investigation into China’s stainless steel flanges and alleged unfair subsidies. He’s also looking deeply into Beijing’s intellectual property tactics. Stephen Bannon, a former adviser to President Trump, once called the movement of U.S. technology to China America’s biggest economic issue, and warned that “If we don’t get our situation sorted with China, we’ll be destroyed economically.”

“Currently, when we ship products out of America, many other countries make us pay very high tariffs and taxes – but when foreign companies ship their products into America, we charge them almost nothing,” Trump said.

But while Trump’s words gained applause from supporters in attendance, his language did not ring well with trade officials in China.

Huo Jianguo, vice-chairman of the Ministry of Commerce’s China Society for WTO Studies, warns China should be mentally and practically prepared for a trade war with the U.S. that is only a matter of time.

He says Trump’s views on policies of protectionism, which his voters expect him to deliver on, is getting Chinese government officials on the defensive.

He notes, however, that although Trump’s anti-China rhetoric has publicly stayed in tune, he has yet to impose his proposed 45% border tax on Chinese imports, and he may still be willing to stay true to the One-China policy.

The U.S. president has also had a phone conversation with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and a face-to-face meeting is expected between the Communist leader and the negotiator-in-chief.

Still, Huo says China must remain vigilant.

It’s not a surprising stance for Beijing to take considering the uncertainty and unpredictability that seems to surround Trump and his inner circle.

“He isn’t showing friendship, nor weakness. He has been constantly testing Beijing’s bottom line,” Huo said.

Back in China, government policy is to keep the crosshairs on these industries and eventually decimate them. Even as Trump promised in his address to Congress that “dying industries will come roaring back”, Chinese Minister of Human Resources Yin Weimin was on the other side of the world laying out a plan to cut 500,000 jobs in heavy industries. That comes after the loss of 726,000 jobs from the steel and coal industries in the last year.

In contrast, Trump wants to establish new American pipelines made with American steel and has told coal miners during his campaign he’ll have them “working your asses off.” The optimism coincides with the president’s “America First view” which pulled him through a heated campaign trail.

Now, the American people wait for him to deliver.

On the other side, the Chinese are seeing these industries on their death march, which began last year when the government announced it was going to cut more than 1 million coal and steel jobs in the next few years.  

The country is seeking to slash its excess capacity in industries led by inefficient state-owned enterprises, which also take up a disproportionate share of financing from banks—which in turn takes away from private companies. The country is also trying to move away from its traditional dependence on state-run investment in infrastructure.

But the road ahead may be longer than expected.

Chinese firms are “reluctant to shutter idle coal mines and steel mills and write them off,” according to report by Capital Economics. “Policymakers continue to drag their feet on reform due to fears that deep capacity cuts would cause a rise in layoffs and an immediate economic downturn. But unless officials act soon, the economy’s sustainable growth rate could more than halve in the years ahead.”

But this may reflect the challenge of the greater coal industry which some analysts argue is disappearing worldwide.  

Can Trump reverse the trends? Only time will tell.