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27-11-2025
WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping held a wide-ranging phone call on issues like Taiwan and trade, as relations appeared to gather new momentum since the pair’s meeting in South Korea last month.
Hours after the call on Monday, the US president hailed the two countries’ “extremely strong” relationship, announcing that he and Xi discussed the war in Ukraine, fentanyl trafficking and a deal for farmers during the “very good” morning call, which also included an exchange of invitations to each other’s countries.
“Now we can set our sights on the big picture … We agreed that it is important that we communicate often, which I look forward to doing,” said Trump, who said he had accepted an invitation to visit China in April, with President Xi making the journey to the US later in the year.
Trump made no mention of any discussions on Taiwan. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had earlier reported that Xi told Trump the return of the island to China was an “integral part of the post-war international order” forged in the joint US-China fight against “fascism and militarism”.
Xi’s overtures came as his country faced off against Japan over the future of the self-governing island, which China considers its territory. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi recently said Japan’s military could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan.
According to China’s Foreign Ministry, Trump told Xi that the US, which does not officially recognize Taiwan’s claim to statehood, yet remains the island’s most important partner and arms supplier, “understands how important the Taiwan question is to China”.
The phone call also coincided with the Trump administration’s latest push to end the war in Ukraine. China has positioned itself as a neutral party in the conflict. In Monday’s call, Xi said he supported “all efforts that are conducive to peace”, expressing hope that the crisis be resolved “at its root”, according to the Foreign Ministry. The conversation came nearly one month after the two men met in person in the South Korean city of Busan as a trade war between the two countries rocked international markets.
A tentative deal reached in October’s meeting saw Beijing agree to suspend export restrictions on critical minerals for one year.
Washington said it would cut back tariffs on Chinese products and that Beijing would up purchases of soya beans from US farmers after shunning the product for months.
Trump said on Monday that he had spoken about “Fentanyl, Soybeans and other Farm Products” with his Chinese counterpart.
“We have done a good, and very important, deal for our Great Farmers and it will only get better,” Trump wrote, without providing further details.
Meanwhile, The United States soya bean harvest is under way, and in rural Maryland, farmer Travis Hutchison cracks open a pod to show that the field is nearly dry enough for reaping but a decent yield is not enough to secure his income this year, with China once the biggest buyer of US soya bean exports halting orders amid a trade dispute triggered by President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs.
Soya bean prices “are really depressed because of the trade war”, Hutchison told media.
“I wasn’t against the president trying it, because I think we needed better trade deals,” added the 54-year-old of Trump’s policies. “I was hoping it would get resolved sooner.” The world’s second-biggest economy bought more than half of the $24.5bn US soya bean exports in 2024. But exports to China have fallen by more than 50 percent in value this year, as Chinese buyers have held off on new orders. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
