The president-elect said the two talked about a range of issues, including TikTok, trade, and fentanyl.
President-elect Donald Trump said he held a productive call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping just days ahead of his inauguration.
“The call was a very good one for both China and the U.S.A.,” he said on his social media site Truth Social. He said that the conversation covered balancing trade, fentanyl, the Chinese media platform TikTok, and “many other subjects.”
“It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately,” he wrote.
The call follows confirmation that Xi has sent his deputy, Han Zheng, to Trump’s swearing-in ceremony on his behalf.
Trump extended an invitation to Xi to the occasion in December, a gesture his spokesperson described as “creating an open dialog with leaders of countries that are not just our allies, but our adversaries and our competitors, too.”
Trump appeared to hint at the move during a Dec. 12 speech at the New York Stock Exchange as he rang the market opening bell, saying that he was “even thinking about inviting certain people to the inauguration.”
“Some people said, ‘Wow, that’s a little risky, isn’t it?’ And I said: ‘Maybe it is. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens,’” he said at the time. “But we like to take little chances, but that’s not a bad chance.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.