President Trump and China's top leader Xi Jinping held a phone call Monday, the latest in a flurry of diplomatic and trade parries between the two countries over tariffs and technology export restrictions.
In a post about the call on Truth Social, President Trump said: "We discussed many topics including Ukraine/Russia, Fentanyl, Soybeans and other Farm Products, etc. We have done a good, and very important, deal for our Great Farmers — and it will only get better. Our relationship with China is extremely strong!"
A statement from China's state news agency said both countries should "keep up the momentum, keep moving forward in the right direction on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit, lengthen the list of cooperation and shorten the list of problems, so as to make more positive progress, create new space for China-U.S. cooperation and bring more benefits to the people of both countries and the world."
Trump and Xi last spoke by phone in September. They met last month in Busan, South Korea, after which the U.S. halved a 20% tariff that was imposed to curb fentanyl flows. Cumulatively, the average tariff on Chinese goods still remains at just below 50%.
"Since then, the China-U.S. relationship has generally maintained a steady and positive trajectory, and this is welcomed by the two countries and the broader international community," the Chinese statement said on Monday.
In October, trade negotiation teams from the U.S. and China hashed out a rough trade consensus that saw the U.S. abruptly pull back an additional 100% in threatened tariffs on Chinese goods. China suspended a planned export control regime on many refined rare earth materials, over which it has developed a near-bottleneck.
But the export controls pause is only for one year, after which China could still cut the U.S. off from these materials that have become small but critical components in many consumer and defense technologies, including automobiles, fighter jets, and semiconductor chip manufacturing.
In his Truth Social post, the president said Xi invited him to visit Beijing in April, and that he had invited Xi for a state visit to Washington later next year. "We agreed that it is important that we communicate often, which I look forward to doing," Trump said.
According to the Chinese statement, the two leaders also spoke on Monday about China's claims over Taiwan, a democratic island China considers part of its territory and wants to control one day; and they discussed Ukraine, which China has repeatedly urged to sign a peace agreement with Russia, one of China's main trading partners.
On the call, Xi emphasized that "Taiwan's return to China is an important part of the post-war international order," according to the Chinese statement.
China is currently in a diplomatic standoff with Japan, whose new prime minister previously said a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be an "existential threat" to Japan.
Chinese diplomats have complained in the United Nations that the statement was "a grave violation" and cut off some flights in tour groups to Japan, which earns billions of dollars a year in Chinese tourism.
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