Trump Announces He Plans to Travel to China in April After Call with Xi
President Donald Trump has declared that he will go to Beijing in April and extended an invitation to Chinese President Xi Jinping for a official visit later next year, after a telephone conversation between the two officials.
Trump and Xi—who held talks nearly a month ago in South Korea—discussed a series of matters including commerce, the Ukraine conflict, the opioid crisis, and Taiwan, as stated by the president and Chinese officials.
"Bilateral relations is very robust!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Beijing's press outlet issued a comment that indicated both countries should "continue advancing, keep moving forward in the positive way on the principle of equality, esteem and mutual benefit".
Previous Meeting and Commerce Progress
The officials convened in Busan, South Korea in the fall, subsequently they reached a ceasefire on tariffs. The US chose to reduce a 20% tariff by half targeting the movement of opioids.
Tariffs stay on products from China and are around nearly 50 percent.
"Afterwards, the bilateral relations has mostly kept a steady and positive trajectory, and this is welcomed by the both nations and the international community at large," the official comment added.
- America then retracted a potential imposition of full extra duties on China's exports, while the Chinese government put off its scheme to enforce its latest round of restrictions on rare earths.
Commerce Discussions
The administration's spokesperson Karoline Leavitt stated that the Monday call with Xi—which lasted about an hour—was focused on economic issues.
"We are pleased with what we've witnessed from the Beijing, and they agree," she said.
Wider Discussions
Besides talking about trade, Xi and Trump raised the issues of the Ukraine war and the island.
Xi told Trump that Taiwan's "reunification with China" is critical for Beijing's perspective for the "world order following wars".
The Chinese government has been part of a political dispute with Tokyo, a American partner, over the enduring "strategic ambiguity" on the authority of self-governed Taiwan.
In the past few weeks, Japan's leader Sanae Takaichi said that any military action by China on Taiwan could compel a response from Japan's forces.
Trump, however, did not refer to the island in his Truth Social post about the conversation.
America's envoy to Tokyo, George Glass, noted before that the United States backs the Japanese in the context of China's "coercion".