President Trump and China’s chief Xi Jinping shake palms in Busan, South Korea, Oct. 30
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP through Getty Photos
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Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP through Getty Photos
President Trump and China’s high chief Xi Jinping held a telephone name Monday, the newest in a flurry of diplomatic and commerce parries between the 2 international locations over tariffs and expertise export restrictions.
In a submit concerning the name on Fact Social, President Trump stated: “We mentioned many matters together with Ukraine/Russia, Fentanyl, Soybeans and different Farm Merchandise, and many others. We’ve got completed an excellent, and essential, deal for our Nice Farmers — and it’ll solely get higher. Our relationship with China is extraordinarily robust!”
A press release from China’s state information company stated each international locations ought to “sustain the momentum, maintain shifting ahead in the precise course on the idea of equality, respect and mutual profit, lengthen the record of cooperation and shorten the record of issues, in order to make extra optimistic progress, create new area for China-U.S. cooperation and produce extra advantages to the individuals of each international locations and the world.”
Trump and Xi final spoke by telephone in September. They met final month in Busan, South Korea, after which the U.S. halved a 20% tariff that was imposed to curb fentanyl flows. Cumulatively, the typical tariff on Chinese language items nonetheless stays at slightly below 50%.
“Since then, the China-U.S. relationship has usually maintained a gradual and optimistic trajectory, and that is welcomed by the 2 international locations and the broader worldwide group,” the Chinese language assertion stated on Monday.
In October, commerce negotiation groups from the U.S. and China hashed out a tough commerce consensus that noticed the U.S. abruptly pull again a further 100% in threatened tariffs on Chinese language items. China suspended a deliberate export management regime on many refined uncommon earth supplies, over which it has developed a near-bottleneck.
However the export controls pause is just for one yr, after which China may nonetheless minimize the U.S. off from these supplies which have turn out to be small however vital parts in lots of client and protection applied sciences, together with vehicles, fighter jets, and semiconductor chip manufacturing.
In his Fact Social submit, the president stated Xi invited him to go to Beijing in April, and that he had invited Xi for a state go to to Washington later subsequent yr. “We agreed that it is necessary that we talk usually, which I look ahead to doing,” Trump stated.
In accordance with the Chinese language assertion, the 2 leaders additionally spoke on Monday about China’s claims over Taiwan, a democratic island China considers a part of its territory and needs to manage at some point; they usually mentioned Ukraine, which China has repeatedly urged to signal a peace settlement with Russia, one in every of China’s primary buying and selling companions.
On the decision, Xi emphasised that “Taiwan’s return to China is a crucial a part of the post-war worldwide order,” in line with the Chinese language assertion.
China is at the moment in a diplomatic standoff with Japan, whose new prime minister beforehand stated a Chinese language invasion of Taiwan could be an “existential risk” to Japan.
Chinese language diplomats have complained within the United Nations that the assertion was “a grave violation” and minimize off some flights in tour teams to Japan, which earns billions of {dollars} a yr in Chinese language tourism.
