Trump and Xi speak for the first time since the start of trade war to ease tensions

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone this Thursday in an effort to ease tensions in the strained bilateral relationship. The friction has stemmed from mutual accusations of breaching trade agreements on tariffs and, on the Chinese side, Washington’s decision to revoke student visas for Chinese nationals.

Trump described the call on his social media as “very good,” saying it led to “a very positive conclusion for both countries.” He also claimed that “there should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products,” which has been one of the main U.S. grievances.

Delegations from both countries will meet again “soon” at a yet-to-be-determined location, Trump noted in a message posted on his social network, Truth Social. The U.S. delegation will include Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

“The conversation was focused almost entirely on TRADE. Nothing was discussed concerning Russia/Ukraine, or Iran.,” Trump clarified. Both leaders also extended invitations to visit each other’s countries, with Trump adding: “As Presidents of two Great Nations, this is something that we both look forward to doing.”

China’s state news agency, Xinhua, reported that the call was initiated “at the request” of Trump. It marks the first conversation between the two leaders since the Republican’s inauguration. According to Trump, the call lasted an hour and a half.

The U.S. president had complained on social media just the day before about the difficulty of establishing communication with his Chinese counterpart. In a message posted in the early hours of Wednesday in Washington, Trump wrote that Xi is “very tough, and extremely hard to strike a deal with.”

Since returning to office, Trump and the White House had repeatedly announced an imminent conversation with the Chinese leader, but none of those expected calls had materialized — until now.

Accusations

The United States has accused China of failing to honor its commitment — reached in Geneva on May 12 — to ease export controls on rare earth elements, which are essential for manufacturing everything from semiconductors to cars and aircraft. Beijing controls the vast majority of the global supply.

During the Geneva meeting last month, China agreed to approve licenses for the sale of rare earth elements to U.S. buyers. But the approval process can take up to 45 days, something that has tested Washington’s patience.

For its part, the Asian giant blames Washington for imposing unfair restrictions on aircraft engine parts and on the sale of specialized software used in semiconductor design — an attempt, it claims, to prevent China from acquiring the most advanced chips. It also accuses the U.S. of placing limits on semiconductor production by Chinese tech giant Huawei. Additionally, the U.S. announced last week it would “aggressively” impose visa restrictions on Chinese students.

The tariff salvos and China’s countermeasures led to an unprecedented situation where, blow by blow, both countries raised tariffs on each other’s goods to astronomical levels. Washington imposed duties of up to 145% on Chinese imports, while Beijing responded with tariffs of 125% on American products — figures that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent compared to a de facto embargo.

The mutual accusations threatened to derail the fragile understanding reached last month in Geneva by the world’s two largest economic powers. The delegations at that meeting were led, on the U.S. side, by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and on the Chinese side by Vice Premier He Lifeng.

At the start of that meeting, U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods stood at 145%, while China’s tariffs on U.S. goods reached 125%. After negotiations, those rates were temporarily lowered to 30% for Chinese products and 10% for American goods.

China has consistently maintained a firm stance in anticipation of future negotiations. Every time Trump claimed he would speak with Xi “soon” (something he first said after the initial round of tariffs in February), China has responded with silence. The last time the two spoke was three days before Trump’s inauguration, and Beijing was displeased when, just days later, he approved a first wave of 10% tariffs in a bid to pressure China to do more to curb fentanyl trafficking.

The delay in communication is partly due to China’s different diplomatic approach — never impulsive, never conducted via social media, and always built from the bottom up, not the other way around.

Beijing has denounced every U.S. tariff hike before the World Trade Organization and responded with strong rhetoric, but always through official spokespeople or formal statements. “The US’s practice of escalating tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake, which seriously infringes on China’s legitimate rights and interests and seriously damages the rules-based multilateral trading system,” the Chinese government said in a statement in April.

This time, China considers itself better prepared than during the first trade war triggered by Trump during his first term. In addition to matching tariffs, it has struck where it knows it can hurt the U.S. — by restricting exports of critical minerals and rare earths. And it has maintained all along that it would not sit down to negotiate while tariffs remained in place, calling them a form of coercion. “If the US insists on its own way, China will fight to the end,” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.

One detail shows just how firm China has remained: at the height of the trade battle, Mao Ning, chief spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, posted on social media an old speech by Mao Zedong from the Korean War era, in which the leader said it was up to the U.S. president to end the conflict: “No matter how long this war is going to last, we’ll never yield.”

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