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Donald Trump He held his first phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping since leaving the White House in 2021, and the two leaders discussed the fate of TikTok before the Supreme Court upheld a law banning the app in the US.
The talks between the leaders were the first in four years, and came two days before the law took effect, forcing app stores to stop selling to users.
“I have just spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping. “The call was great for China and the US,” Trump wrote on Friday on the real social media platform. We discussed balancing trade, Fentanyl, TikTok and many other topics. President Xi and I will do our best to make the world more peaceful and secure!
Chinese state media confirmed the call on Friday but gave no details, including any discussion about TikTok. TrumpThe incoming national security team has been in contact with Beijing, but the call between the Chinese leader and the incoming US president was the first direct conversation between the men in four years.
The call comes three days before Trump’s inauguration at a ceremony attended by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, the first time a top Chinese official has attended a US inauguration.
of Financial Times reported Last week, Xi announced that he would send a delegation to Washington after Trump invited the Chinese leader to attend the event.
Some Trump advisers had hoped Beijing would send Cai Qi, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee who is closest to Xi and has more power than Han, who sometimes stands in for Xi in ceremonial roles.
Washington and Beijing are waiting to see what kind of China policy Trump will announce at the start of his administration. He has threatened to impose tariffs on imports from China and several other countries, but it is unclear whether he is doing so to gain negotiating leverage with Beijing or to start negotiations on a trade deal with China and implement tariffs if talks are held. It is not successful.
The conversation comes two days before US app stores were forced to stop stocking TikTok, the video-sharing app that has been downloaded by more than 170 million Americans. The law – which was upheld in a Supreme Court ruling on Friday morning – would ban the app unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells the platform.
Trump expressed his support for TikTok, raising questions about whether the administration should prosecute companies that violate the law.
US-China relations In the year In 1979, the two countries lowered diplomatic ties to their lowest point during the Biden administration, with differences ranging from US export controls to Taiwan.
While Biden and Xi managed to partially stabilize their relationship last year, the two countries continue to disagree on a range of issues, including China’s support for Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Trump has named several vocal China hawks to serve in his administration, including Mike Waltz as US national security adviser and Marco Rubio as secretary of state.
Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessant said this week that Trump would push China to buy more U.S. farm products, including corn and soybeans that were part of a narrow trade deal with China in the past.
Besant said Trump would be aggressive in imposing export controls that would affect China. Beijing has repeatedly criticized the Biden administration for introducing tougher export controls on chips and artificial intelligence-related technologies to slow the modernization of the People’s Liberation Army.
But China experts and some tech billionaires in Trump’s orbit, such as Elon Musk, will try to persuade the incoming president to take a slightly tougher stance on the issue.
