It happened during the day long awaited phone call between the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping. It was reported by the China Central Television, stressing that the initiative came from Trump himself: a detail that Beijing's media insisted on, internally, to reinforce the image of China in a dominant position in the confrontation with Washington. The phone call was later confirmed by the offices of the two leaders.
The interview, lasted about an hour and a half, took place in a formal but constructive climate and had as its central focus the commercial issuesTrump called it “a great call” to address “some of the complexities of our recently concluded and agreed-upon trade deal.”
The dialogue comes at a delicate moment between the two superpowers. Tariff negotiations remain stalled despite the temporary truce agreed in Geneva last May, while in the background persist geopolitical tensions linked to Taiwan and Chinese expansion in the South China Sea.
New negotiations in sight and mutual invitations
At the end of the phone call, Trump announced that the respective economic teams will meet again “soon, at a location to be defined”. The US delegation will be led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
In his message on Truth Social, the American president added that the conversation “has focused almost entirely on trade. There was no talk of Russia/Ukraine or Iran.” Among the specific topics addressed, also the rare earth issue: “There should no longer be any doubt about the complexity of rare earth products.”
And then an exchange of official invitations: “During the conversation, President Xi graciously invited me and the first lady to visit China, and I reciprocated. As presidents of two great nations, it is something we both look forward to doing,” the tycoon explained.
Xi: “Steer the ship well” of bilateral relations
From the Chinese front, Xi Jinping he insisted on the need for stable and far-sighted management of bilateral relations: "For correcting the course of China-US ties, is it is necessary to govern the ship well and establish direction, eliminating any kind of interference or even sabotage, which is of particular importance.”
Xi also called the recent economic talks in Geneva an important step: “The economic and trade leaders of the two countries held talks in Geneva, taking an important step to resolve related issues through dialogue and consultation.” According to the state-run network CCTV system, the cooperation model proposed by Beijing would be “widely welcomed by all sectors of the two countries and by the international community”.
At the moment, however, the distances remain deep. The issue of tariffs remains unresolved and the situation in Taiwan, recently inflamed by the Pentagon's declarations on a possible Chinese intervention, continues to represent a critical point. The conversation between Trump and Xi therefore marks a restart in dialogue, but the road to a structural understanding is still a long way off.
