Xi, Trump to have phone call this week: White House

RTHK

2 days ago

Xi, Trump to have phone call this week: White House
The Foreign Ministry says Beijing has "no information to provide" on White House claims that the leaders of China and the US would talk this week. File photo: RTHK
President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump will likely hold a long-awaited call later this week, the White House said on Monday, as trade tensions between the world's two biggest economies ratchet back up.
Asked about the matter on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said Beijing had "no information to provide."
Trump re-ignited strains with China last week when he accused the world's second-biggest economy of violating a deal that had led both countries to temporarily reduce huge tit-for-tat tariffs.
The Commerce Ministry hit back, saying Washington had seriously undermined the consensus reached during the China-US economic and trade talks in Geneva earlier.
"The two leaders will likely talk this week," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters outside the West Wing when asked whether Trump and Xi would speak.
The presidents of China and the US have yet to have any confirmed contact more than five months since the Republican returned to power, despite frequent claims by the US president that a call is imminent.
Trump even said in a Time Magazine interview in April that Xi had called him, but Beijing insisted that there had been no call recently.
The US leader introduced in April sweeping worldwide tariffs that targeted China most heavily of all, accusing other countries of "ripping off" the United States and running trade imbalances.
China has denounced the tariffs, calling them protectionist, and made it clear no one wins in a trade or tariff war. (AFP)