Trump says he and Xi will meet in South Korea next month and he’ll later go to China
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said he would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at a regional summit to take place at the end of October in South Korea and will visit China in the “early part of next year,” following a phone call the leaders shared on Friday.
In a Truth Social post, Trump also said the Chinese leader would come to the United states “at an appropriate time,” noting the leaders also made progress on “the approval of the TikTok Deal.”
“The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at APEC!” Trump wrote, referring to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, a grouping of 21 economies on the Pacific Rim.
Neither Trump nor a readout of the call from Chinese state media gave any details on what was discussed about TikTok. TikTok did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for more details on the call or the framework deal.
China’s official news agency Xinhua said Xi, in the call, stressed the importance of the bilateral ties and urged the U.S. side to avoid any unilateral trade restrictions.
This is the second call with Xi since Trump returned to the White House and launched sky-high tariffs on China, triggering back-and-forth trade restrictions that strained ties between the two largest economies. But Trump, a Republican, has expressed willingness to negotiate trade deals with Beijing, notably for TikTok, which faces a U.S. ban unless its Chinese parent company sells its controlling stake.
Trump said the two made progress also on “many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end,” besides the TikTok deal.
Another call for Trump and Xi over trade tensions
The two men also spoke in June to defuse tensions over China’s restrictions on the export of rare earth elements, used in everything from smartphones to fighter jets.
Trump on Thursday said his relationship with China is “very good” but noted that Russia’s war in Ukraine could end if European countries put higher tariffs on China. Trump didn’t say if he planned to raise tariffs on Beijing over its purchase of Moscow’s oil, as he has done with India.
Before the call, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said “heads-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable role in providing strategic guidance for China-U.S. relations.”
Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center, had predicted a positive discussion.
“Both sides have strong desire for the leadership summit to happen, while the details lie in the trade deal and what can be achieved for both sides from the summit,” Sun said.
Efforts to finalize the TikTok deal
Following a U.S.-China trade meeting earlier this week in Madrid, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the sides reached a framework deal on TikTok’s ownership but Trump and Xi likely would finalize it Friday.
Trump, who has credited the app with helping him win another term, several times has extended a deadline for the app to be spun off from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. It is a requirement to allow TikTok to keep operating in the U.S. under a law passed last year seeking to address data privacy and national security concerns.
Trump said Thursday that TikTok “has tremendous value” and the U.S. “has that value in its hand because we’re the ones that have to approve it.”
U.S. officials have been concerned about ByteDance’s roots and ownership, pointing to laws in China that require Chinese companies to hand over data requested by the government. Another concern is the proprietary algorithm that populates what users see on TikTok.
Chinese officials said Monday that a consensus was reached on authorization of the “use of intellectual property rights,” including the algorithm, and that the two sides agreed on entrusting a partner with handling U.S. user data and content security.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, says TikTok’s data and algorithm must be “truly in American hands” to comply with the law.
More trade issues on the table
Top U.S. and Chinese officials have held four rounds of trade talks between May and September, with another likely in the coming weeks. Both sides have paused sky-high tariffs and pulled back from harsh export controls, but many issues remain unresolved.
No deals have been announced on tech export restrictions, Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products or fentanyl. The Trump administration has imposed additional 20% tariffs on Chinese goods linked to allegations that Beijing has failed to stem the flow to the U.S. of the chemicals used to make opioids.
Trump’s second-term trade war with Beijing has cost U.S. farmers one of their top markets. From January through July, American farm exports to China fell 53% compared with the same period last year. The damage was even greater in some commodities: U.S. sorghum sales to China, for instance, were down 97%.
Josh Gackle, chairman of the American Soybean Association, said he would be following the outcome of Friday’s call because China, the biggest foreign buyer of U.S. beans, has paused purchases for this year’s new crop.
“There’s still time. It’s encouraging that the two countries continue to talk,” Gackle said. “I think there’s frustration growing at the farmer level that they haven’t been able to reach a deal yet.”
