President Donald Trump held a phone call Thursday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beijing said.
The call was initiated by Trump, according to Beijing’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and China’s embassy in the US.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the report.
Stocks opened higher Thursday morning, as investors hoped that the Trump-Xi call would break the current stalemate in the two countries’ trade talks. The gains quickly fizzled, however, as traders awaited details from that call.
The impasse between the two economic superpowers — whose trade relationship totaled nearly $600 billion in 2024 — is weighing on Trump’s broader tariff regime, which is already having a real-world impact.
Trump has reportedly been eager to speak with Xi, as strained trade relations between the two countries frayed further in the past week.
While Washington and Beijing temporarily lowered tariffs on each other’s goods following constructive talks in Switzerland last month, that tentative agreement has since come under threat.
The Trump administration has publicly accused Beijing of slow-walking its pledge to approve the export of more critical minerals, a result of the negotiations in Geneva.
China, meanwhile, has expressed deep frustration with a recent decision to impose new restrictions on Chinese student visas. It has also accused the Trump administration of undermining recent trade progress by issuing an industry warning against using Chinese semiconductors.
The Trump administration has also imposed additional export restrictions on chips. The White House claims the actions are required to protect national security, but Beijing views them as punitive.
Thursday’s conversation was only the second time this year that the two leaders have held a one-on-one call. Trump and Xi previously spoke on Jan. 17, prior to the U.S. president’s inauguration.
Ahead of the latest call, Trump praised Xi in a social media post that also betrayed his frustration.
“I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!” Trump wrote early Wednesday morning.
China has been a prime target of Trump’s efforts to wield steep, unilateral tariffs for the stated goal of recalibrating America’s trade relationships with the rest of the world.
Trump had ratcheted blanket tariffs on Chinese imports up to 145% in April, even as he temporarily lowered duties on most other countries to 10%. Beijing hiked tariffs on U.S. goods to 125% in retaliation.
The tariffs effectively led to a trade embargo. But that logjam appeared to shift in mid-May, after talks in Geneva that both sides described as successful and productive.
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— CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng and Christina Wilkie contributed to this report.