CNN
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President Donald Trump said he had a “very good” phone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the US president-elect prepares to return to the White House next week.
“I just spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping,” President Trump posted on his social media platform TruthSocial. “We look forward to solving many problems together, and I think we can get started quickly.”
President Trump said the two sides discussed trade, fentanyl, TikTok and more, calling the meeting “very good” for both countries.
“President Xi and I will do our best to make the world more peaceful and secure!” he wrote.
In a readout from China’s Foreign Ministry, President Xi said he “places great importance on mutual exchanges” with Trump and “hopes that China-US relations will get off to a good start” during Trump’s second term. Ta.
The call, believed to be the first between the two since President Trump left office at the end of his first term, comes at a time of strained relations between Washington and Beijing. Ta.
Shortly after the call, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the controversial ban on TikTok could go into effect on Sunday, with popular claims that the ban violated the First Amendment. The app’s appeal was dismissed.
Earlier, China’s Foreign Ministry announced that Xi would not attend President Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Monday. Instead, Vice President Han Zheng will attend the ceremony in Washington DC as Mr Xi’s special representative.
After Xi was re-elected in November, he sent a message of congratulations to President Trump, saying that the United States and China “stand to gain from cooperation and lose from conflict,” and said the two countries could find “a way to get along with each other.” He said he hopes so. ”
In an interview with NBC after his re-election, President Trump said that he had gotten on “very well” with President Xi while in office.
However, President Trump’s comments were not always friendly. As a candidate, President Trump promised to impose a 60% tariff on all goods imported from China. As president-elect, he softened his claims and threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese goods by another 10% until Beijing stops illegal drugs from entering the United States.
President Trump’s cabinet nominees include prominent China hawks, including Marco Rubio, nominated for secretary of state and currently under sanctions by the Chinese government, and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, nominated for secretary of defense. Some groups have warned that China is intent on defeating the United States. World domination.
But a complicating factor is Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of electric car giant Tesla, which manufactures more than half of its cars in China. Musk is often invited to meet with Chinese officials during his trips to China.
Repeating some of Beijing’s claims, Musk previously said the two countries could maintain a “win-win” relationship, a significant departure from Trump’s more zero-sum attitude.
While pointing out the possibility of cooperation, President Xi told President Trump, “It is natural that two major countries with different national conditions have some differences of opinion,” and singled out the “Taiwan issue.”
The Chinese government views Taiwan as a breakaway territory that should be “unified” with the mainland, and has repeatedly emphasized that it will use force if necessary.
Trump was seen as a friend of Taiwan during his first term, but his rhetoric has hardened since then. During his campaign, Trump argued that self-governing democracies should pay the United States more for “protection” and that they had “stolen” America’s semiconductor business.
