Donald Trump said he held a \u201cvery good\u201d phone call with China\u2019s President Xi Jinping, as the US-president elect prepares to return to the White House next week. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just spoke to Chairman Xi Jinping of China,\u201d Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. \u201cIt is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately.\u201d <\/p>\n
Trump said the pair discussed trade, fentanyl, TikTok and other subjects, and that the call was \u201cvery good\u201d for both countries. <\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n
In a readout from China\u2019s Foreign Ministry, Xi said he and Trump \u201cattach great importance to mutual interactions,\u201d and \u201chope for a good start of the China-US relationship\u201d during Trump\u2019s second term. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Earlier, China\u2019s Foreign Ministry said that Xi would skip Trump\u2019s inauguration on Monday. Instead, Vice President Han Zheng will attend the ceremony in Washington, DC, as Xi\u2019s special representative. <\/p>\n
Xi sent Trump a message of congratulations after his reelection in November, telling him that the US and China \u201cstand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation,\u201d and said he hoped the two countries could find a way \u2018to get along with each other.\u201d <\/p>\n
In an interview with NBC following his reelection, Trump said he got along \u201cvery well\u201d with Xi during his time in office. <\/p>\n
But Trump\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Echoing some of Beijing\u2019s talking points, Musk has previously said the two countries can maintain a \u201cwin-win\u201d relationship, in a sharp break from Trump\u2019s more zero-sum attitude. <\/p>\n
Despite pointing to the prospects for cooperation, Xi told Trump that it is \u201cnatural for two big countries with different national conditions to have some disagreements,\u201d singling out \u201cthe Taiwan question.\u201d <\/p>\n
Beijing has repeatedly stressed that it views Taiwan as a breakaway territory that must be \u201cunified\u201d with the mainland, and that it is willing to use force if necessary. <\/p>\n
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 \u201cprotection\u201d and that it had \u201cstolen\u201d America\u2019s chip business. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Donald Trump said he held a \u201cvery good\u201d phone call with China\u2019s President Xi Jinping, as the US-president elect prepares to return to the White House next week. \u201cI just spoke to Chairman Xi Jinping of China,\u201d Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. \u201cIt is my expectation that we will solve many…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}