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Donald Trump held his first phone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping since leaving the White House in 2021, and the two leaders discussed the fate of TikTok shortly before the Supreme Court upheld a law banning the app in the US.
The conversation between the leaders was their first in four years and came just two days before the law is due to take effect, forcing app stores to stop offering it to users.
“I just spoke with Chairman Xi Jinping of China. The invitation was very good for both China and the US,” Trump wrote on his media platform Truth Social on Friday. “We talked about balancing trade, fentanyl, TikTok and many other topics. President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the world more peaceful and secure!”
Chinese state media also confirmed the invitation on Friday, but did not provide details, including any discussion of TikTok. TrumpThe new national security team has been in contact with Beijing, but the call between the Chinese leader and the incoming US president marks the first direct conversation between the two in four years.
The invitation comes three days before Trump’s inauguration in a ceremony attended by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, the first time a senior Chinese official has attended an inauguration in the US.
The The Financial Times reported last week that Xi would send an envoy to Washington after Trump invited the Chinese leader to attend 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 China policy Trump will present at the start of his administration. He has threatened to impose tariffs on imports from China and many other countries, but it is not clear whether he will do so to gain an advantage in negotiations with Beijing, or whether he will begin negotiations on a possible trade deal with China and apply tariffs if negotiations are unsuccessful.
The conversation comes two days before US app stores must stop offering TikTok, the video-sharing app that has been downloaded by more than 170 million Americans. The law — upheld in a Supreme Court ruling Friday morning — bans the app unless its Chinese owner ByteDance sells the platform.
Trump expressed support for TikTok, questioning whether his administration would prosecute companies that break the law.
American-Chinese relations it fell to its lowest point since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1979 during the Biden administration over issues ranging from US export controls to differences over Taiwan.
While Biden and Xi have managed to partially stabilize relations over the past year, the 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 vocal China hawks to serve in his administration, including Mike Waltz as US national security adviser and Marco Rubio as secretary of state.
Scott Bessent, the nominee for Treasury secretary, said this week that Trump would encourage China to buy more US agricultural products, such as corn and soybeans, which were part of the narrow trade deal he struck with China last time.
Bessent said Trump would also be aggressive in imposing export controls that would hit China. Beijing has often criticized the Biden administration for imposing strict export controls on chips and artificial intelligence-related technology in an effort to slow the modernization of the People’s Liberation Army.
But China experts are watching closely to see if some of the tech billionaires in Trump’s orbit, such as Elon Musk, will try to persuade the incoming president to take a less hard line on the issue.