Xi Jinping, China’s leader, in Beijing last month. He and President Trump spoke by phone amid fraying relations between the United States and China after trade talks in May.
Credit...Pool photo by Tingshu Wang

Trump and Xi Hold Call, China Says

The two leaders spoke by phone on Thursday, after weeks of worsening tensions between Washington and Beijing.

by · NY Times

China and the United States agreed on Thursday to hold more trade talks in hopes of breaking an impasse over tariffs and global supplies of rare earth minerals that has begun to threaten the global economy.

The promise of fresh discussions followed a phone conversation between the leaders of the two superpowers that President Trump described as “very positive.”

Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social that his call with Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, had focused entirely on the trade relationship between the nations, which has soured in recent months in a dispute over the export of critical minerals used in an array of industries.

The president implied that the two leaders had resolved issues surrounding mineral exports, which China had recently halted to the United States, though he did not provide details. He said his trade team would meet again soon with Chinese officials, in a yet-to-be-determined location. Mr. Trump added that he and Mr. Xi had invited each other and their spouses to visit their respective countries.

“I just concluded a very good phone call with President Xi, of China, discussing some of the intricacies of our recently made, and agreed to, Trade Deal,” Mr. Trump said. The call lasted around an hour and a half, he added, and “resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries.”

Chinese state media said Thursday that Mr. Xi had called for greater cooperation, consultation and respect between the countries, and that the exchange had happened at Mr. Trump’s request.

Mr. Xi welcomed Mr. Trump to visit China, state media reported, and said the United States should withdraw negative measures against his country. He added that both countries should enhance their exchanges in diplomacy, economics, military and other fields.

The two leaders were last known to have spoken to each other on Jan. 17, days before Mr. Trump was inaugurated as president. Mr. Trump said Thursday’s discussion had not touched on matters beyond trade, including the Russian-Ukrainian war and the nuclear negotiations with Iran.

The call signaled a potential thaw in the U.S.-Chinese relationship, after several weeks of escalating tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

The countries had reached a tentative truce last month in a meeting in Geneva, where they agreed to roll back tariffs they had placed this year on each other’s imports, as well as to remove other trade barriers.

But in recent weeks, each government had accused the other of violating their Geneva agreement. China continued to clamp down on exports of rare earth minerals that are essential for U.S. makers of cars, airplanes and defense goods, while the United States responded by halting exports of American technology and a variety of industrial products to China. The Trump administration also proposed a plan to revoke visas for Chinese students associated with the Communist Party or studying in critical fields.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump wrote on social media that Mr. Xi was “VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH.”

The standoff has made companies that depend on trade between the countries increasingly nervous. Shortages of the minerals, which are used to make powerful industrial magnets that are essential components in many electric motors, have threatened to bring some American factories to a standstill, including America’s defense industry. China dominates the global market for the minerals and views it as a choke point for the United States.

Wendy Cutler, the vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former trade negotiator, said the disputes since the Geneva meeting underscored how difficult and complicated any upcoming talks would be.

“The likelihood of further misunderstandings, coupled with a fundamental lack of trust, will present enormous challenges for the negotiators as they try to hammer out a deal,” she said.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

The Trump administration has said little publicly about what concessions it hopes to obtain from China, though American officials have expressed concerns for years about Chinese trade practices that have made it difficult for factories in the United States to survive.

Mr. Trump has appeared intent on ratcheting up negotiating pressure on Beijing through tariffs. In early April, he raised levies on Chinese goods to an eye-watering minimum rate of 145 percent, and China retaliated by increasing duties on American imports to 125 percent. The tit-for-tat moves effectively cut off trade between the countries and raised concerns about a global economic slowdown.

During their meeting in Geneva, officials from both countries agreed to reduce the punishing tariffs they imposed on each other for 90 days while seeking a longer-term resolution. China also pledged to suspend or remove what it called “non-tariff countermeasures” it had issued since April, though it did not disclose details. Trump administration officials said they had expected China to lift its restrictions on rare earth exports, but many of those curbs continue.

China has said the rare earth export controls apply to all countries, meaning it can argue that the controls should not be regarded as a countermeasure against the United States.

“The Chinese are reluctant to give up their leverage so easily,” said Yun Sun, the director of the China program at the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank. She added that “they want to wait and see how things go” with trade negotiations.

Mr. Trump has suggested on several occasions since returning to the White House that a call or a meeting with Mr. Xi was imminent. While Mr. Trump would rather speak directly with Mr. Xi, Chinese officials generally favor negotiating details in advance of any such call or meeting. And Beijing had been concerned about the possibility that Mr. Trump would embarrass Mr. Xi during talks, analysts said.

Later Thursday in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said he and Mr. Xi had had a “good conversation,” adding, “It’s very complex stuff, and we straightened it out.” On the issue of barring Chinese students, he said the United States wanted foreign students but needed to monitor them.

Chinese state media said Thursday that Mr. Xi had called for correcting the course of “the big ship” of Chinese-U.S. relations, which would require leaders to remove all kinds of “interference and even sabotage.”

Chinese state media reported that Mr. Xi on Thursday also drew a hard line on Taiwan, the island democracy that China claims as its territory and that counts the United States as a top backer. He essentially warned Mr. Trump that Washington should not let what he called Taiwan separatists drag the countries into “a dangerous situation of conflict and confrontation,” according to state media.

Jonathan Swan contributed reporting.

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