China's Xi pushes Taiwan issue in call with Trump

BEIJING: Chinese leader Xi Jinping pressed the issue of Taiwan in a phone call Monday with US President Donald Trump, as he stressed the need to build on a fragile trade truce between the two superpowers.

China’s foreign ministry said the call touched on other issues, such as Ukraine, but Taiwan featured prominently, with China embroiled in a weeks-long diplomatic row with key US ally Japan over the self-governing island.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, and Xi told Trump that its return was an “integral part of the post-war international order” forged in the joint US-China fight against “fascism and militarism”, according to the department.

“Given what is going on, it is even more important for us to jointly safeguard the victory of WWII,” Xi told Trump.

Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai hit back at Xi’s comments, telling reporters on Tuesday that Taiwan “is a fully sovereign state” and “there is no such option as return”.

The latest bitter dispute between Tokyo and Beijing was triggered by new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggesting this month that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan.

While the United States does not officially recognise Taiwan’s claim to statehood, Washington remains the island’s most important partner and arms supplier.

Trump praised “extremely strong” US-China relations in a social media post after the call, but made no mention of the contentious issue of Taiwan.

According to China’s foreign ministry, Trump told Xi during their discussion that the United States “understands how important the Taiwan question is to China”.

The US president’s statement also confirmed that he will visit China in April, and that Xi will go to Washington later in 2026.

Meanwhile Takaichi said she also had a call with Trump and discussed his conversation with Xi, as well as US-Japan relations.

We “held a wide-ranging exchange of views on strengthening the Japan-US alliance and the challenges and issues facing the Indo-Pacific region”, she told reporters, without elaborating.

She said Trump had proposed the call.

Both China and Japan have sent letters to the UN in recent days over the Taiwan issue.

Trade talks momentum

Xi and Trump’s call came after the pair met in late October for the first time since 2019, engaging in closely watched trade talks between the world’s top two economies.

The Washington-Beijing tussle, which encompasses everything from rare earths to soybeans and port fees, has rocked markets and gummed up supply chains for months.

A tentative deal reached in October’s meeting in South Korea saw Beijing agree to suspend for one year certain export restrictions on critical minerals.

China is hugely dominant in the mining and processing of rare earths, which are essential for sophisticated electronic components across a range of industries, including auto, electronics and defence.

Meanwhile, the United States said it will cut back tariffs on Chinese products, and Beijing will buy at least 12 million tonnes of American soybeans by the end of this year and 25 million tonnes in 2026.

Xi told Trump on Monday that their two countries should “keep up the momentum”, according to the foreign ministry.

He added that the “successful” meeting in South Korea “recalibrated the course of the giant ship of China-US relations and provided more momentum for it to sail forward steadily”.

Since the meeting, China–US ties have “generally maintained a steady and positive trajectory, and this is welcomed by the two countries and the broader international community”, Xi said.

Trump struck a similarly optimistic tone in his statement.

“Now we can set our sights on the big picture,” he said.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said Washington hoped to finalise a deal with Beijing for securing supplies of rare earths by the Thanksgiving holiday, which falls on Thursday.