He said his relationship with China is “very good” but noted that Russia’s war in Ukraine could end if European countries put higher tariffs on China. Trump didn’t say if he planned to raise tariffs on Beijing over its purchase of Moscow’s oil, as he has done with India.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington on Thursday didn’t confirm the call or any upcoming summit between the leaders, but spokesperson Liu Pengyu said “heads-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable role in providing strategic guidance for China-U.S. relations.”
Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center, predicted a positive discussion.
“Both sides have strong desire for the leadership summit to happen, while the details lie in the trade deal and what can be achieved for both sides from the summit,” Sun said.
Efforts to finalize the TikTok deal
Following a U.S.-China trade meeting earlier this week in Madrid, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the sides reached a framework deal on TikTok’s ownership but Trump and Xi likely would finalize it Friday.
Trump, who has credited the app with helping him win another term, has extended a deadline several times for the app to be spun off from its Chinese parent company ByteDance. It is a requirement to allow TikTok to keep operating in the U.S. under a law passed last year seeking to address data privacy and national security concerns.
Trump said TikTok “has tremendous value” and the U.S. “has that value in its hand because we’re the ones that have to approve it.”
U.S. officials have been concerned about ByteDance’s roots and ownership, pointing to laws in China that require Chinese companies to hand over data requested by the government. Another concern is the proprietary algorithm that populates what users see on TikTok.
Chinese officials said Monday that a consensus was reached on authorization of the “use of intellectual property rights,” including the algorithm, and that the two sides agreed on entrusting a partner with handling U.S. user data and content security.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, says TikTok’s data and algorithm must be “truly in American hands” to comply with the law.
More trade issues on the table
Top U.S. and Chinese officials have held four rounds of trade talks between May and September, with another likely in the coming weeks. Both sides have paused sky-high tariffs and pulled back from harsh export controls, but many issues remain unresolved.
