Donald Trump said he held a “very good” phone call with China’s President Xi Jinping, as the US-president elect prepares to return to the White House next week.
“I just spoke to Chairman Xi Jinping of China,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately.”
Trump said the pair discussed trade, fentanyl, TikTok and other subjects, and that the call was “very good” for both countries.
“President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!” he wrote.
In a readout from China’s Foreign Ministry, Xi said he and Trump “attach great importance to mutual interactions,” and “hope for a good start of the China-US relationship” during Trump’s second term.
The phone call, believed to be the first between the pair since Trump left office after his first term, comes during a tense moment in Washington-Beijing relations.
Swiftly after the call, the US Supreme Court ruled that a controversial ban on TikTok can take effect on Sunday, rejecting an appeal from the popular app that claimed the ban violated the First Amendment.
Earlier, China’s Foreign Ministry said that Xi would skip Trump’s inauguration on Monday. Instead, Vice President Han Zheng will attend the ceremony in Washington, DC, as Xi’s special representative.
Xi sent Trump a message of congratulations after his reelection in November, telling him that the US and China “stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation,” and said he hoped the two countries could find a way ‘to get along with each other.”
In an interview with NBC following his reelection, Trump said he got along “very well” with Xi during his time in office.
But Trump’s rhetoric has not always been so amicable. As a candidate, Trump pledged to slap 60% tariffs on all goods coming in from China. As president-elect, he has tempered his claims, threatening to raise tariffs on Chinese goods by an additional 10% until Beijing prevents the flow of illegal drugs to the US.
Trump’s cabinet picks also comprise several prominent China hawks, including Marco Rubio, tapped for secretary of state and currently sanctioned by Beijing, and Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host tapped for defense secretary who has warned China is bent on defeating the US and achieving global domination.
A complicating factor, however, is Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of the electric vehicle giant Tesla, which makes more than half its cars in China. Musk is often invited to meet Chinese officials on his trips there.
Echoing some of Beijing’s talking points, Musk has previously said the two countries can maintain a “win-win” relationship, in a sharp break from Trump’s more zero-sum attitude.
Despite pointing to the prospects for cooperation, Xi told Trump that it is “natural for two big countries with different national conditions to have some disagreements,” singling out “the Taiwan question.”
Beijing has repeatedly stressed that it views Taiwan as a breakaway territory that must be “unified” with the mainland, and that it is willing to use force if necessary.
Trump was seen as a friend to Taiwan during his first term, but his rhetoric has since hardened. On the campaign trail, Trump claimed the self-ruling democracy should pay the US more for “protection” and that it had “stolen” America’s chip business.
