U.S. President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping of China discussed trade and geopolitical flashpoints, including Taiwan, during a Wednesday call ahead of a planned face-to-face meeting later this year.
Trump cast the call as “excellent” and “long and thorough,” adding that the two spoke about increasing Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans to 20 million tons for the current season as well as buys of oil and gas and “airplane engine deliveries.” Trump said China committed to importing 25 million tons of American soybeans “for next season.”
The two leaders also discussed his planned visit to China in April, broader trade issues, Russia’s war in Ukraine and Taiwan, Trump said, adding the talk was “all very positive!”
The Chinese government, however, cast their discussion over the self-governing island, which it sees as its own territory, in a more contentious light. Xi raised the Taiwan issue, and specifically urged the U.S. to handle arms sales to Taipei with “utmost caution” and said Beijing will never allow the island to be separated, according to a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry.
Xi called on both sides to strengthen communication, properly manage differences, and expand cooperation.
“Neither neglect small acts of goodwill nor commit minor wrongdoings,” Xi said. “We should proceed one thing at a time and steadily build mutual trust.”
Analysts pointed to the lack of mention of China’s recent diplomatic spat with Japan as evidence the relationship has improved in the last few months. The leaders’ last phone call in November was dominated by tensions between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan.
“The positive tone in both readouts is consistent, boding well for the relationship beyond 2026,” said Neo Wang, lead China macro analyst at Evercore ISI in New York.
Still, the dueling descriptions of the discussion about Taiwan show that lingering tensions exist between the world’s two largest economies, even as Trump and Xi have sought to deescalate a trade conflict that blew up shortly after the U.S. president returned to office last year.
Washington approved arms sales to Taiwan worth as much as $11.15 billion last year — one of its biggest ever — in a bid to strengthen the island’s defenses and deter potential Chinese aggression. That move drew sharp criticism from Beijing, which had said it strongly opposed the U.S. arms sale.
“Xi’s emphasis on Taiwan may reflect the Chinese side’s displeasure towards the Trump administration’s recent approval of a large arm-sale package for the island, but it doesn’t appear that this issue is going to derail the ongoing bilateral truce,” said Gabriel Wildau, managing director at Teneo, a New York-based advisory firm.
Wednesday’s call comes with Trump and Xi slated to hold multiple meetings this year, with a summit potentially coming as soon as April. Xi also spoke with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin earlier Wednesday.
U.S.-China relations have stabilized after Xi and Trump reached a one-year trade truce in South Korea last year. Before that, tit-for-tat tariff hikes and export curbs rattled global financial markets and raised fears of an economic downturn. Despite the detente, China’s attempts to strengthen trade ties with traditional U.S. allies, Trump’s capture of Venezuelan strongman and Beijing ally Nicolas Maduro and the ongoing pressure campaign against Iran have threatened that fragile peace.
Shipments of Venezuelan oil to China, which averaged 400,000 barrels a day last year, fell to zero in January after a U.S. naval crackdown on the transport of sanctioned crude from that country. Trump has said he welcomes Chinese investment in Venezuela as he looks to rebuild the country’s beleaguered energy infrastructure.
A fishermen in front of Petroleos de Venezuela SA oil rigs on Lake Maracaibo in Cabimas, Zulia state, Venezuela. Photographer: Bloomberg
The U.S. president has also threatened tariffs on any country doing business with Iran as he looks to raise pressure on the Islamic Republic’s regime to cut a deal with him over its nuclear program. China is the world’s top buyer of Iranian oil.
Trump’s own sweeping tariff regime, and worries that the US may no longer be a reliable economic or security partner, have led some allies to seek to improve their own ties with Beijing.
Several European leaders have sought an audience with Xi, including French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who both traveled to Beijing in recent months as part of a diplomatic reset. Canada also reached an agreement with China on trade matters, a decision by Ottawa to diversify its trade amid ongoing tensions with Trump.
Trump has also moved to bolster alternative supplies of rare earths to loosen China’s grip on critical minerals, unveiling earlier this week plans to launch a $12 billion stockpile. The European Union is also pitching the U.S. on a partnership that would look for ways to jointly source the critical minerals needed for most modern technologies.
Both the U.S. and EU have become tethered to abundant, cheap Chinese minerals, giving Beijing leverage over their supply chains.
Trump and Xi met in October on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in South Korea, where the two leaders agreed to scale back tariffs and crack down on the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs into the U.S.
There have been breakthroughs on other matters in the meantime. Trump worked with Xi recently to approve a long-awaited deal for TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd. to transfer parts of their U.S. operations to a consortium of American investors.
A deal was initially supposed to be completed by January 2025 to avoid a US ban on the popular social media app, but Trump extended the deadline several times to give TikTok more time to finalize the deal. Its future became an important bargaining chip for China in broader trade negotiations.
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