TAIPEI, TAIWAN \u2014\u00a0U.S. President-elect Donald Trump held a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday, just hours after China announced its plan to send Vice President Han Zheng to attend Trump\u2019s inauguration ceremony on Monday. In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump described the call as \u201ca very good one\u201d for the United States and China and said the two discussed issues such as balancing trade, fentanyl, TikTok and \u201cmany other subjects.\u201d “It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately,\u201d Trump wrote in the post. “President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!\u201d Chinese state media said Xi congratulated Trump on his election victory during the call and said both he and the president-elect have great aspirations for the development of U.S.-China relations over the next four years. \u201cWe both attach great importance to our interactions with each other, we both hope that U.S.-China relations will get off to a good start in the American President\u2019s new term, and we both are willing to push China-U.S. relations forward to make greater progress from a new starting point,\u201d Xi said in a readout published by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. Xi said while there will be differences between Beijing and Washington, the key is to “respect each other’s core interests and major concerns and to find a proper solution to the problem.\u201d Xi urged Trump to handle the Taiwan issue \u201ccarefully.\u201d Beijing claims that democratic Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force if necessary to unify the island with China. According to the Chinese readout, Xi and Trump also exchanged views on the Ukraine War, the conflict between Israel and Palestinians, and other major international and regional issues. Earlier on Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced the decision for Chinese Vice President Han Zheng to represent Xi at the inauguration. The announcement comes more than a month after Trump invited Xi and other foreign leaders to attend his inauguration. It is an unprecedented move that marks a break from tradition, since foreign ambassadors have historically attended presidential inaugurations. Analysts say Beijing is showing \u201cgoodwill\u201d toward the new Trump administration by sending Han. \u201cChina has no established tradition of letting the president attend other heads of state\u2019s inauguration ceremonies,\u201d said Zhou Bo, a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University in Beijing. \u201cSending the vice president to attend Trump\u2019s inauguration ceremony is the best option, and it shows Beijing\u2019s goodwill to President-elect Trump,\u201d he told VOA by phone. While Beijing tries to respond positively to Trump\u2019s invitation, other experts say Han\u2019s attendance will remain largely ceremonial. \u201cI don\u2019t expect anything concrete out of Han\u2019s trip to Washington,\u201d said Zhiqun Zhu, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at Bucknell University in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Despite the ceremonial nature of Han\u2019s attendance at the inauguration, Zhu said Beijing\u2019s move could still \u201clay a good foundation\u201d for U.S.-China relations under the second Trump administration. \u201cHopefully, a friendly atmosphere will be built and can be sustained in the weeks and months ahead, so when the two sides sit down to discuss substantive issues, maybe a deal could be struck,\u201d he told VOA by phone. Trump\u2019s return to the White House has created uncertainties for China, which has faced a persistent economic downturn in recent years. During his presidential campaign, Trump vowed to impose tariffs up to 60% on Chinese products. Zhou said the possibility of high tariffs has made Beijing cautious about the prospect of U.S.-China relations under the second Trump administration. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how Trump will play his cards, so I believe China will wait to see how his policies toward China play out,\u201d he told VOA. Despite threatening to impose tariffs on Chinese imports, Trump said the two could have a good relationship and that he has been in contact with the Chinese leaders through representatives. \u201cAnd I think we will probably get along very well, I predict,\u201d he said during an interview with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Jan. 6, adding that the relationship has to be \u201ca two-way street.\u201d Additionally, Trump wants to appoint several politicians known for hawkish stances on China, including Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state and Representative Mike Waltz to be White House national security adviser. Rubio, during his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, described China as \u201cthe most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.\u201d \u201cThey have elements that the Soviet Union never possessed. They are a technological adversary and competitor, an industrial competitor, an economic competitor, a geopolitical competitor, a scientific competitor,\u201d he said. Despite Rubio\u2019s seemingly tough rhetoric on China during the hearing, Zhu said it is too early to tell whether that language will translate into actual policies toward China in the new administration. \u201cSome of the appointees by Trump seem hawkish on China but since they work for Trump, I don\u2019t think they will override Trump\u2019s policies,\u201d he told VOA. Zhu said since it remains unclear how Trump will shape his policies toward China, Washington and Beijing will \u201cmove ahead cautiously. \u201cBoth sides had a terrible experience during Trump\u2019s first term so it looks like they want to start afresh this time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TAIPEI, TAIWAN \u2014\u00a0U.S. President-elect Donald Trump held a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday, just hours after China announced its plan to send Vice President Han Zheng to attend Trump\u2019s inauguration ceremony on Monday. In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump described the call as \u201ca very good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":495,"featured_media":27642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[141],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/495"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}