US President-elect Donald Trump acknowledged on Friday that he had had a phone conversation with genocidal Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, calling it an “extraordinary” phone conversation that would help Washington and China “solve many problems.” “It was a good meeting,” he said.
China's state-run Xinhua News Agency also Confirmed A call was received on Friday, but no information was provided other than the presence of the phone.
Mr Trump is expected to be sworn in as US president for the second time on Monday, having won the 2024 election on a campaign platform that identified the Chinese Communist Party as a major national security threat to the US. The Trump campaign has repeatedly belittled its primary opponent, outgoing President Joe Biden, as being too friendly to the Communist Party, and has threatened to restrict China's ability to buy U.S. farmland and stock U.S. stores with tons of slave-contaminated goods. He proposed policies such as imposing tariffs on China to limit the influx of China. shelf. After President Trump won in November, the Chinese market plummeted. Chinese media openly refers to President Trump as a “threat” to communist interests.
President Trump's message during his phone call with Xi did not show any overt friction between the two countries. Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. promised He said he and Xi Jinping would “do everything to change the world.” [sic] More peace and security! ”
“I just spoke with President Xi Jinping of China. This meeting was very good for both China and the United States,” President Trump wrote. “We look forward to solving many problems together, and I think we can get started quickly.”
Trump said the two leaders talked about “balancing trade, fentanyl, TikTok and many other topics,” but did not elaborate.
The content of the call is beginning Communications known to have taken place between Trump and Xi since 2021, when Trump resigned from office after Biden lost the 2020 election. President Trump's first term was marked by a lack of support for Chinese victims of communism and a lack of support for China's negative influence internationally, even though President Trump remained faithful to President Xi Jinping. It was characterized by a policy of containment. In 2017, President Trump welcomed President Xi to a lavish dinner at his Florida mansion, Mar-a-Lago, and famously ordered an airstrike against the Chinese-allied Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. Assad's regime was overthrown in December by the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militia.
Unconfirmed reports have said over the past month that President Trump personally invited Xi to his inauguration on Monday. Shortly before the phone call with Xi was made public, the Chinese government confirmed that it would send Xi's vice president, Han Zheng, as a representative to the event. Han's In front of you This will be the first time that such a high-level Communist Party official will attend an American presidential inauguration.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China issued They confirmed Han's attendance and issued a friendly statement.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs asserted that “China adheres to the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation in prospecting and developing relations with the United States.” “We stand ready to work with the new US administration to enhance dialogue and communication… [and] We will jointly pursue stable, healthy and sustainable China-US relations, and find the right path for the two countries to work together in a new era. ”
The topics discussed were some of the most controversial in China-US relations, according to President Trump, and the approach of the Biden administration, which claimed to prioritize issues such as “climate change” in discussions with Chinese officials. It's a complete contrast. The ban on TikTok has been particularly controversial in the United States.
Tiktok is a Chinese-owned social media application that is very popular in the United States, especially among young Americans. On Friday, the Supreme Court unanimously dominated I support legislation to ban TikTok in the United States because it poses a serious national security risk. Tiktok serves both as an intelligence-gathering application that closely monitors its users and as a disseminator of propaganda, amplifying the influence of content that promotes the values and interests of the Chinese Communist Party. Chinese authorities have described the application as an effective propaganda tool.
Tiktok's parent company Bytedance has chosen not to sell the application to U.S. administrators by the Jan. 19 deadline, meaning the site must legally shut down by that date. ByteDance also does not allow Americans to download the Chinese version of Douyin, which is known for sharing intellectual, educational and other productive content instead of the typical videos on TikTok.
Instead, the Chinese government is encouraging Americans to download another communist application, Xiaohongshu (“Xiaohongshu”). The app shares its name with mass murderer Mao Zedong's most famous work. In anticipation of the Tiktok ban, Xiaohongshu racked up millions of downloads in the US.
President Trump's warm remarks during his meeting with Xi contrast with the aggressive approach that leading members of his administration heralded in Congressional hearings this week. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), President Trump's pick for secretary of state, has made opposition to communism around the world a cornerstone of his policy, which led to China's ban on him from entering the country. Sen. Rubio was asked Wednesday about his opposition to the Communist Party, and he said it doesn't get in the way of diplomacy.
“They've said some mean things about me, too, but I don't know if they're my fans,” Rubio said in response to a question from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). . “My role as Secretary of State is to lead the foreign affairs department of this country, and that includes engaging with the foreign affairs department.”
“Despite what I have said, I have consistently maintained throughout my career that this is due to growing geopolitical imbalances. [between China and America] That is the greatest risk to global security and prosperity,” Sen. Rubio added, “because it could quickly lead to not just trade and economic conflict, but devastating armed conflict.” .
Scott Bessent, President Trump's pick for Treasury secretary, used his time in the Senate Thursday to criticize China's status as the world's worst polluter.
“China plans to build 100 new coal-fired power plants this year. There is not a clean energy competition, there is an energy competition. China will build 10 new nuclear power plants this year. It’s not solar power,” he argued. “While I am in favor of building more nuclear power plants, I would like to note that, as CBO pointed out, the IRA lacks significant control over upward spending.”
Bessent, reportedly shown He was open to imposing carbon tariffs on China.
