(Adds latest development of Trump, Xi call on November 24)

By Liz Lee and Shi Bu

BEIJING, Nov 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump

has targeted top economic rival China with a cascade of tariffs

on imports worth billions of dollars as he tries to narrow a

trade deficit, bring home lost manufacturing and cripple the

fentanyl trade.

Here are key events this year in the U.S.-China trade war,

in reverse chronological order:

November 24 - Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S.

counterpart hold a surprise phone call, weeks after they met in

South Korea late October.

Xi tells Trump their countries should keep up momentum in

ties and "lengthen the list of cooperation and shorten the list

of problems."

Trump says they also discussed fentanyl, soybeans and other

farm products but does not elaborate.

"We have done a good, and very important, deal for our Great

Farmers - and it will only get better," Trump writes on Truth

Social.

November 11 - China says it will continue to broaden access

and investment opportunities to U.S. companies, particularly in

the services sector.

November 10 - China pauses for a year port fees levied on

U.S.-linked vessels, as well as sanctions on U.S. affiliates of

South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean, after Washington

suspended punitive measures resulting from its Section 301

investigations into China's maritime, logistics, and

shipbuilding sectors.

China adjusts its drug-related precursor chemicals catalogue,

and will require export licences for certain chemicals to the

U.S., Canada and Mexico. The FBI director made a visit to China

to discuss fentanyl and law enforcement issues, according to

sources.

November 9 - China suspends a ban on gallium, germanium and

antimony exports to the U.S., although those metals remain

under a dual-use export control list requiring shippers to

obtain licences from Beijing.

November 7 - China suspends export control measures it imposed

on October 9, including expanded curbs on some rare earths

materials and equipment, lithium battery materials and

super-hard materials. Beijing has also begun forming a new rare

earth licensing regime, possibly speeding up shipments, industry

insiders say.

China says it will restore soybean import licences for three

U.S. firms and lift the suspension on U.S. log imports starting

November 10.

November 6 - China begins modest purchases of U.S. farm

products, including two cargoes of wheat and a sorghum

shipment. China's COFCO holds a soybean procurement signing

ceremony, an agriculture business association says, without

providing details.

November 5 - Beijing suspends retaliatory tariffs on U.S.

imports from November 10, including farm goods duties of up to

15%, but keeps levies of 10% countering Trump's "Liberation Day"

tariffs.

Imports of U.S. soybeans still face a tariff of 13%, but China

will drop curbs on some U.S. optical fibre imports, and ease

measures on U.S. entities.

October 30 - United States and China strike new trade truce

after talks in South Korea between Trump and Xi. Trump agrees to

trim tariffs in exchange for Beijing cracking down on illicit

fentanyl trade, resuming U.S. soybean purchases and pausing

controls on exports of rare earths.

Beijing says the United States also pledged a year's delay in

plans to bar Chinese firms from its technology.

October 25-26 - Malaysia talks yield trade deal framework for

both nations' leaders to decide on after Treasury Secretary

Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer meet

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and top trade negotiator Li

Chenggang.

October 17 - U.S. State Department calls Chinese sanctions on

Hanwha Ocean "coercion", undermining ties between Washington and

Seoul.

October 15-16 - Greer and Bessent chide China's expanded rare

earth export controls as threat to global supply chains. Bessent

vows to seek tighter control of strategic sectors to counter

China.

Apple ( AAPL ) CEO Tim Cook pledges China investment boost.

October 14 - Both nations begin collecting additional port fees

from each others' vessels, but China exempts ships it built. It

sanctions five U.S.-linked units of Hanwha Ocean as threats to

its security and sovereignty.

October 12-13 - China calls new U.S. tariffs hypocritical, but

Bessent says plans for Trump-Xi meet remain on track.

October 10 - Trump unveils additional levies of 100% on imports

from China, and new export controls on "any and all critical

software", from November 1, while threatening export controls on

Boeing ( BA ) plane parts in response to China's limits on rare earth

exports.

There is no reason to meet Xi, Trump says, but does not

cancel plans.

China launches antitrust investigation of U.S. chip maker

Qualcomm ( QCOM ) over the purchase of Israeli chip designer Autotalks.

China targets U.S.-linked vessels with port fees from October

14, in response to similar U.S. fees on China-linked ships.

October 9 - China widens export controls on rare earths from

November 8, to cover five more medium to heavy elements and

beefs up scrutiny of semiconductor users, tightening its grip

and dominance on critical minerals.

United States plans to ban Chinese airlines from flying over

Russia on U.S. routes, as being disadvantageous to U.S.

carriers.

October 1 - Soybeans will be major topic for Xi meet, Trump

says, calling China's sharply reduced U.S. purchases of the

oilseed a negotiation tactic.

September 30 - Greer says tariffs of about 55% on Chinese

imports are a "good" status quo, but the United States would

like freer trade.

September 24 - Bessent says chemicals, aircraft engines and

parts offer U.S. key leverage in China talks.

September 21 - Visiting U.S. lawmakers tell Premier Li Qiang

that China, United States need to step up engagement.

September 19 - Trump and Xi hold telephone call, during which

Trump says they made progress on a TikTok pact and agreed to

meet face-to-face to discuss trade, illicit drugs and the

Ukraine war. China welcomes commercial talks on TikTok.

September 15 - Both sides clinch framework deal to switch TikTok

to U.S.-controlled ownership as U.S. vows to refrain from more

tariffs on Chinese goods over Russian oil imports unless

European levies come first.

September 14 - Fourth round of talks, in Madrid, led by

Bessent and China's He discuss trade and TikTok divestiture

deadline of September 17.

August 11 - Both nations extend tariff truce for further 90

days.

August 10 - With trade truce set to expire on August 12, Trump

urges China to quadruple U.S. soybean purchases.

August 8 - United States reverses April ban to start issuing

Nvidia ( NVDA ) licences for exports of advanced AI H20 chips to China,

as part of talks on rare earths.

July 28-29 - U.S. and Chinese officials agree to seek extension

of 90-day tariff truce after two days of talks in Stockholm,

though they made no major breakthroughs.

June 27 - Bessent says both sides resolve issues on rare earth

minerals and magnets destined for the United States.

June 9-12 - Framework deal reached in London round of talks,

while some Chinese rare earths magnet producers begin to receive

export licences. Trump says a trade truce is back on track.

June 5 - Xi and Trump hold an hour-long telephone call.

May 31 - Trump says China violated Geneva deal to mutually roll

back tariffs and ease curbs on critical minerals exports. China

rejects this, accusing the U.S. of "discriminatory restrictive"

curbs instead.

May 28-29 - United States threatens to revoke visas of Chinese

students, while ordering some companies to stop shipping some

goods to China.

May 10-12 - First round of trade talks in Geneva agrees to

90-day pause on tariffs, cutting to 30% U.S. tariffs on Chinese

goods from 145%, while China drops tariffs to 10% from 125%.

China to also scrap non-tariff measures adopted since April 2.

April 15 - Chipmaker Nvidia says U.S. officials told it

China sales of the H20 chip would need an export licence.

April 11 - China also raises levies to 125% on U.S. imports,

calls Trump's tariff strategy "a joke" and signals it will

ignore any further U.S. "numbers game with tariffs".

April 9 - China matches levies at 84% on U.S. imports, hits 12

U.S. companies with controls barring exports of dual-use items,

and designates six more as "unreliable entities".

The United States further hikes tariffs to 125% on Chinese

imports, from 84%. China warns citizens against U.S. travel.

April 8 - United States raises tariffs to 84% on all Chinese

imports, from 34%.

April 4 - China sets retaliatory tariffs of 34% for all U.S.

imports from April 10 and export curbs on some rare earths, as

well as limits on about 30 U.S. bodies in defence-related

fields.

April 2 - Trump unveils a sweeping baseline 10% "Liberation

Day" tariffs on all imports and even higher duties on goods from

some countries, with a levy of 34% on China, from April 9.

The U.S. scraps duty-free access from May 2 for low-value

shipments from China and Hong Kong.

March 3-4 - The United States doubles to 20% fentanyl-related

tariffs on all Chinese imports from March 4. China hits back

with retaliatory levies of 10% to 15% on U.S. agriculture,

hitting $21 billion in exports, clamping export and investment

curbs on 25 U.S. firms

February 4 - China responds with measures targeting U.S.

businesses, as well as 15% levies on U.S. coal and LNG and 10%

for crude oil and some autos from February 10.

It curbs exports of five metals key to defence and clean energy.

February 1 - Trump imposes 10% punitive duty on goods from China

along with 25% on Mexico and Canada, to press for curbs on

fentanyl and illegal immigrants flowing into the United States.