President Donald Trump says his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, invited him to visit Beijing and he reciprocated the invitation during a call in which they discussed the trade fight between the world’s two largest economies.
Trump said in a June 5 social media post that trade and the invitations to visit each other’s respective countries were the main topics of conversation after the two nations paused tit-for-tat tariffs and began longer term negotiations.
A statement from the Chinese government suggested Taiwan also came up. The country’s foreign ministry said that Xi welcomed a visit by Trump to China without delving into any specifics.
Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, first reported on the call, which prompted a brief jump in futures and then a drop in U.S. stock prices when financial markets opened.
The Chinese embassy in Washington later said the leaders spoke at Trump’s request.
It was the first known call between the presidents since Trump took office. Their last reported conversation took place several days before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 17. Trump told reporters that it was a “very good talk” in which they’d straightened out trade complexities.
“I think we’re in very good shape with China and the trade deal,” Trump said, offering a warmer readout of the call than the one released by Xi’s government.
Trump visited Xi in Beijing during his first term, a lavish affair in which the Chinese leader treated the U.S. president to a private opera performance in the Forbidden City and rolled out the red carpet at the Great Hall of the People for the visiting leader.
Trump’s administration had said a call was likely to take place between the leaders this week without specifying when. The White House declined earlier in the week to say what the leaders would discuss, though tariffs and new U.S. visa restrictions on Chinese students were expected to be topics.
The American president accused China in late May of “totally violating” a preliminary deal that brough tariffs down from 145% on Chinese imports to 30% while their trade teams negotiated a long-term agreement. China also reduced its tariffs on U.S. exports from 125% to 10% as part of the talks.
China this week accused the U.S. of severely undermining the 90-day truce with artificial intelligence microchip export controls and its crackdown on visas for students in critical fields or who the U.S. says are associated with the Chinese Communist Party.
Trump said in his social media post that he worked out issues involving critical minerals exports during his one and a half hour call with Xi and that their trade teams would be meeting again soon to work out the details.
China’s foreign ministry meanwhile said in a statement that Beijing will “always honor and deliver what has been promised” and that both sides should adhere to the preliminary trade agreement that was reached by their teams. “The U.S. side should acknowledge the progress already made, and remove the negative measures taken against China,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in a statement.
