Donald Trump says he discussed TikTok in first call with Xi Jinping since 2021

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Donald Trump made his first call with Chinese President Xi Jinping since leaving the White House in 2021, with the two leaders discussing the fate of TikTok before the Supreme Court upheld a law banning the app in the US.

The conversation between the leaders was the first in four years, and came just two days before the law went into effect, forcing app stores to stop offering it to users.

I just spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “The call was very good for both China and the United States,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth on Friday. “We discussed balancing the trade, fentanyl, TikTok, and many other topics. President Xi and I will do our best to make the world more peaceful and secure!

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the two leaders agreed to “establish a strategic communication channel to maintain regular contact on major issues of common concern.”

While painting a positive picture of the call, the ministry said Xi warned Trump that the United States should handle the “Taiwan issue” “wisely.”

Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan and refuses to rule out the use of force to occupy the island.

Trump’s incoming national security team is in contact with Beijing, but the call between the Chinese leader and the incoming US president represents the first direct conversation between the two men in four years.

This call comes three days before Trump’s inauguration at a ceremony attended by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, which is the first time that a senior Chinese official has attended an inauguration ceremony in the United States.

The Financial Times reported last week that Xi would send an envoy to Washington after Trump invited the Chinese leader to the event.

Some Trump advisers had hoped Beijing would send Cai Qi, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee who is very close to Xi and wields far more power than Han, who sometimes replaces Xi in ceremonial roles.

Washington and Beijing are waiting to see what kind of Chinese policy Trump will unveil at the beginning of his administration. He has threatened to impose tariffs on imports from China and several other countries, but it is unclear whether he will do so to gain leverage in negotiations with Beijing or whether he will begin negotiations on a potential trade deal with China and implement tariffs if the talks are to continue. unsuccessful.

This conversation comes two days before US app stores were required to stop running TikTok, the video-sharing app that has been downloaded by more than 170 million Americans. The law – which was upheld in a Supreme Court ruling on Friday morning – bans the app unless its Chinese owner ByteDance sells the platform.

Trump has expressed support for TikTok, raising questions about whether his administration will sue companies that violate the law.

Relations between the United States and China have fallen to their lowest levels since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1979 during the Biden administration over issues ranging from US export controls to disagreements over Taiwan.

While Biden and Xi have partially stabilized relations over the past year, the two countries remain at odds over a range of issues, including Chinese support for Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Trump has appointed several vocal China hawks to serve in his administration, including Mike Waltz, US national security adviser, and Marco Rubio, secretary of state.

Scott Besent, his nominee for Treasury Secretary, said this week that Trump would push China to buy more American agricultural products, such as corn and soybeans, which were part of a narrow trade deal he struck with China last time.

Trump would also be aggressive in imposing export controls that would impact China, Besant said. Beijing has often criticized the Biden administration for imposing strict export controls on chips and technology related to artificial intelligence in an attempt to slow the modernization of the People’s Liberation Army.

But China experts are watching closely to see whether some of the tech billionaires in Trump’s orbit, like Elon Musk, will try to convince the next president to take a less tough stance on the issue.

Additional reporting by Joe Leahy in Beijing