Highly anticipated call comes amid accusations between Washington and Beijing over critical minerals
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday held talks with US President Donald Trump by phone, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua reported, as bilateral relations have been strained by trade disputes.
The phone talks were at Trump’s request, Xinhua said, without providing further details about the leaders’ conversation.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The highly anticipated call comes amid accusations between Washington and Beijing in recent weeks over critical minerals in a dispute that threatens to tear up a fragile truce in the trade war between the two biggest economies.
The countries struck a 90-day deal on May 12 to roll back some of the triple-digit, tit-for-tat tariffs they had placed on each other since Trump’s January inauguration.
Though stocks rallied, the temporary deal did not address broader concerns that strain the bilateral relationship, from the illicit fentanyl trade to the status of democratically governed Taiwan and US complaints about China’s state-dominated, export-driven economic model.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly threatened an array of punitive measures on trading partners, only to revoke some of them at the last minute. The on-again, off-again approach has baffled world leaders and spooked business executives, who say the uncertainty has made it difficult to forecast market conditions.
China’s decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets continues to disrupt supplies needed by automakers, computer chip manufacturers and military contractors around the world.
Beijing sees mineral exports as a source of leverage — halting those exports could put domestic political pressure on the Republican US president if economic growth sags because companies cannot produce mineral-powered products.
