“We both accepted, so I will be going there with the first lady at a certain point, and he will be coming here, hopefully, with the first lady of China,” Trump said.
No dates were set for the visits.
The Chinese side made no mention of the rare earth issue in its account of the talks, but alluded to the disagreement that had erupted over it. In a statement confirming the phone call, which it said Trump initiated, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it had been “seriously and earnestly executing the agreement” reached in Geneva, and the US “should remove the negative measures taken against China”.
“Both sides should make good on the agreement reached in Geneva,” the statement said.
Wen-ti Sung, a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, said Xi gave Trump face to talk up progress on a deal without promising anything in substance, except for a symbolic invitation of a visit to China.
“Washington seems happy to claim that as a win. It shows Washington may be more eager for an off-ramp than Beijing is,” said Sung, also a political scientist at the Australian National University.
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China said that Xi had also used the talks to deliver a warning to the US on Taiwan to avoid “fringe separatists bent on ‘Taiwan independence’” from dragging China and America into confrontation or conflict.
Following the phone call, Trump appeared to walk back his administration’s plan to begin “aggressively” revoking visas issued to Chinese students, announced last week.
“Chinese students are coming. No problem. No problem. It’s our honour to have them”, he said, adding “but we want to check them”.
Under the 90-day trade truce struck in May, the US agreed to temporarily lower its tariffs from 145 per cent to 30 per cent, and China slashed its import duties to 10 per cent, down from 125 per cent, and agreed to remove other trade barriers.
But the agreement appeared on thin ice after Washington accused Beijing of dragging its feet on approving export licences for rare earths, which had sparked frenzied warnings from global automakers of an imminent production shutdown due to critical shortages of the materials used in electric vehicle motors. In retaliation, the US paused sales of chip design software and plane engine parts to China.
For weeks, Trump had signalled his desire to speak directly with Xi, but had grown increasingly despondent, posting on Truth Social one day before the phone call that the Chinese president was “VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!”
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