Catenaa, Thursday, June 05, 2025- US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a phone conversation on Thursday as the two nations try to restart previously stalled trade talks.
“Our respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined,” President Trump announced on Truth Social after what he described as a “very good phone call” that lasted for one and a half hours.
“The conversation was focused almost entirely on TRADE. Nothing was discussed concerning Russia/Ukraine, or Iran,” Trump said.
He added that both leaders invited and accepted invitations from the other for a presidential-level visit, but no clarity on who might go first.
Chinese state media also confirmed the call, as well as some details, most notably the apparent restarting of trade talks. A brief Chinese dispatch also said the call had been initiated at Trump’s request.
Trump announced that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would represent the US side. Bessent and Greer led the recent talks with China in Geneva that led to a May truce that lowered tariffs by 115 percentage points for 90 days.
But that truce immediately began to teeter amid accusations of cheating on both sides, with Bessent recently describing the talks as “stalled.”
Perhaps the top issues for Trump and his team are claims that China has violated the 90-day truce by not loosening trade restrictions on critical minerals. These minerals are the building blocks in everything from computers to electric vehicle batteries to jet engines to medical devices.
“There should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products,” Trump wrote Thursday, without providing additional clarity.
