WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone on Monday to discuss trade, Taiwan and Ukraine, according to the White House and Chinese officials, nearly one month after the two men met in person in the South Korean city of Busan.
Xi told Trump in the phone call Monday that Taiwan’s return to mainland China is “an integral part of the post-war international order,” according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
A White House official confirmed that the call happened on Monday morning but offered no details of the call.
The conversation came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi recently said Japan’s military could get involved if China were to take action against Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing says must come under its rule. Japan is an important ally of the U.S. in the region.
Beijing has since rebuked Takaichi’s remarks, and China-Japan relations have plunged to a new low.
Xi in the phone call said China and the U.S., which fought together during the war against fascism and militarism, should “jointly safeguard the victory of World War II.” The U.S. has taken no side on the sovereignty of the self-governed island but is opposed to the use of force to seize Taiwan. It is obligated by a domestic law to provide sufficient hardware to the island to deter any armed attack.
Trump has maintained strategic ambiguity about whether he would send U.S. troops in case of a war in the Taiwan Strait. His administration has urged Taiwan to increase its defense budget.
Earlier this month, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it received official notification that the Trump administration approved a US$330 million arms sales to Taiwan, including fighter jet parts. Beijing immediately protested the arms sale, saying it “grossly violated” the one-China principle, by which Beijing considers Taiwan to be part of Chinese territory. “China deplores and opposes that,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said then.
The two leaders also discussed trade, but the Chinese statement did not reveal any concrete agreements on matters such as purchases of American soybeans.
In the call, Xi said the bilateral relationship has “generally maintained a steady and positive trajectory” following the Busan summit, and he said the two sides should strive to make “more positive progress,” according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
The two leaders also discussed the Ukraine crisis, the Chinese side said, when Xi said the crisis should be resolved “at its root.”
