Donald Trump says he discussed TikTok in first call with Xi Jinping since 2021
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Donald Trump held his first call with Chinese President Xi Jinping since leaving the White House in 2021, with the two leaders discussing the fate of TikTok just before the Supreme Court upheld a law banning the app in the United States .
The conversation between the leaders was the first in four years and came just two days before the law takes effect, forcing app stores to stop making it available to users.
“I just spoke with President Xi Jinping of China. This was a very good call for both China and the United States,” Trump wrote on his “Truth” social media platform on Friday. “We discussed balanced trade, fentanyl, TikTok, and many other topics. President Xi and I will do everything we can to make the world a more peaceful and secure place!
China’s Foreign Ministry said the leaders of the two countries agreed to “establish strategic communication channels and maintain regular contact on major issues of common concern.”
The foreign ministry said that while the call painted a positive picture, Xi Jinping warned Trump that the United States should handle the “Taiwan issue” with “caution”.
Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan and refuses to rule out the use of force to seize the island.
Trump’s incoming national security team has been in contact with Beijing, but the call between the Chinese leader and the incoming U.S. president marked the first direct talks between the two in four years.
The call came three days before Trump’s inauguration, which Chinese Vice President Han Zheng will attend, the first time a senior Chinese official has attended a U.S. inauguration.
The Financial Times reported last week that Xi Jinping would send a special envoy to Washington after Trump invited the Chinese leader to attend the event.
Some Trump advisers had hoped Beijing would send Politburo Standing Committee member Cai Qi, who is very close to Xi and wields more power than Han Kuo-yu, who sometimes fills ceremonial roles in Xi’s place.
Washington and Beijing are waiting to see what kind of China policy Trump will launch at the beginning of his administration. He has threatened to impose tariffs on imports from China and many other countries, but it is unclear whether he will do so to gain leverage in negotiations with Beijing or whether he will begin talks with China on a possible trade deal, and impose tariffs if negotiations go well.
The conversation took place two days before U.S. app stores were forced to stop selling TikTok, the video-sharing app that has been downloaded by more than 170 million Americans. The Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday morning upheld the law, banning the app unless its Chinese owner ByteDance sells the platform.
Trump expressed support for TikTok, raising questions about whether his administration would prosecute companies that break the law.
On issues such as U.S. export controls and the Taiwan issue, U.S.-China relations have reached their lowest point since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1979 during the Biden administration.
While Biden and Xi have managed to partially stabilize relations over the past year, the two countries remain at loggerheads over a range of issues, including China’s support for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Trump has appointed several outspoken China hawks to serve in his administration, including Mike Waltz as national security adviser and Marco Rubio as secretary of state.
Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent said this week that Trump would push China to buy more U.S. agricultural products such as corn and soybeans as part of a narrow trade deal he last struck with China.
Bessent said Trump will also actively implement export controls that affect China. Beijing has often criticized the Biden administration for imposing strict export controls on artificial intelligence-related chips and technology to slow down the modernization of the People’s Liberation Army.
But Chinese experts are watching closely to see whether some of Trump’s tech billionaires, such as Elon Musk, will try to persuade the incoming president to take a less hardline stance on the issue.
Additional reporting by Joe Leahy in Beijing
