US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held a phone call on Friday to discuss the future of the popular video app TikTok and trade relations between the two countries. The call was their second since Trump began his second term in January. According to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV and the Xinhua news agency, the conversation had started, with Trump previously stating that they would be discussing “TikTok and also trade.”
The talks come as the US and China seek to find a compromise on tariffs, which have been a major point of contention between the two nations. Both countries imposed significant tariffs on each other’s goods earlier this year, disrupting global supply chains. A deal to reduce these levies is set to expire in November, with the US currently imposing 30% duties on Chinese goods and China hitting US products with a 10% tariff.
TikTok has been a major point of discussion, with Trump repeatedly delaying a ban on the app under a US law designed to force Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its US operations for national security reasons. Trump has stated that he hopes to “finalize something on TikTok,” with a possible deal involving a consortium of American investors, including tech giant Oracle and California investment funds Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz.
The phone call also follows a major summit organized by Xi this month with the leaders of Russia and India, and an invitation to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to observe a military parade in Beijing. Trump has been critical of China’s relations with these countries, particularly its purchase of Russian oil, and has called on European countries to sanction China for doing so.
The talks between Trump and Xi are significant, as they aim to signal that each leader has outmaneuvered the other in trade talks. Ali Wyne, an expert on US-China relations, predicts that the pair will focus on tariffs and attempt to demonstrate their negotiating prowess. The outcome of these discussions will have significant implications for the global economy and the future of US-China relations.
The US and China are the world’s two largest economies, and their trade relations have a major impact on global markets. A resolution to the tariffs dispute and the fate of TikTok will be closely watched by investors and businesses around the world. As the deadline for the tariff reduction deal approaches, the international community awaits the outcome of these critical talks.
