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Donald Trump held his first call with Chinese President Xi Jinping since leaving the White House in 2021, with the two leaders discussing the fate of TikTok just before the Supreme Court upheld a law banning the app in the US.
The conversation between the leaders was their first in four years and came just two days before the law takes effect, which will force app stores to stop offering them to users.
“I just spoke with the President of China, Xi Jinping. The call was very good for both China and the US,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social Media platform on Friday. “We discussed balancing trade, Fentanyl, TikTok and many other topics. President Xi and I will do everything to make the world more peaceful and safer!
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the two leaders agreed to “establish a strategic communication channel to be in regular contact on major issues of common concern.”
While painting a positive picture of the call, the ministry said Xi warned Trump that the US should approach the “Taiwan issue” with what it called “prudence”.
Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has refused to rule out the use of armed force to occupy the island.
TrumpThe incoming national security team has been in contact with Beijing, but the call between the Chinese leader and the incoming US president marks the first direct conversation between the men in four years.
The call comes three days before Trump's inauguration in a ceremony attended by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, the first time a top Chinese official has attended a US inauguration.
The The Financial Times reported about it last week that Xi would send an envoy 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 very close to Xi and wields far more power than Han, who sometimes deputizes for Xi in ceremonial roles.
Washington and Beijing are waiting to see what China policy Trump will reveal at the start of his administration. He has threatened to impose tariffs on imports from China and many other countries, but it is unclear whether he will do so to gain negotiating leverage with Beijing, or whether he will open talks on a possible trade deal with China and impose tariffs if the talks go ahead. unsuccessful.
The conversation comes two days before US app stores must stop using TikTok, the video-sharing app that has been downloaded by more than 170 million Americans. The law — upheld by a Supreme Court decision Friday morning — bans the app unless its Chinese owner ByteDance sells the platform.
Trump has expressed support for TikTok and raised questions about whether his administration will prosecute companies that break the law.
US-China relations fell to the lowest point since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1979 during the Biden administration on issues ranging from US export controls to differences over Taiwan.
While Biden and Xi have managed to partially stabilize relations over the past year, the countries remain at loggerheads over a number of issues, including China's support for Russia's full-scale 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.
Scott Bessent, the nominee for Treasury secretary, said this week that Trump would push China to buy more US agricultural products, such as corn and soybeans, which were part of a tight trade deal he struck with China last year.
Bessent said Trump would also be aggressive in imposing export controls that would affect China. Beijing has often criticized the Biden administration for imposing strict export controls on chips and artificial intelligence-related technology in an effort to slow the modernization of the People's Liberation Army.
But China experts are watching closely to see if some of the tech billionaires in Trump's orbit, such as Elon Musk, try to persuade the incoming president to take a less hard line on the issue.
