China s Xi Trump hold call Xinhua reports

BEIJING – US President Donald Trump said he held a “very good” phone call on trade with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on June 5, adding that the two of them invited each other to visit their respective countries.

“The call lasted approximately 1½ hours, and resulted in a very positive conclusion for both countries,” Mr Trump said on Truth Social, adding that US and Chinese trade teams would hold a new meeting “shortly”.

“President Xi graciously invited the First Lady and me to visit China, and I reciprocated. As presidents of two great nations, this is something that we both look forward to doing,” he added.

“The conversation was focused almost entirely on trade. Nothing was discussed concerning Russia-Ukraine, or Iran.”

The call follows officials in Beijing and Washington accusing each other of jeopardising a trade war truce agreed in May in Geneva.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the call was initiated at Mr Trump’s request.

“I like President Xi of China, always have, and always will, but he is very tough, and extremely hard to make a deal with!!!” Mr Trump posted on June 4 on his Truth Social platform.

Mr Trump, who has roiled markets in recent months with successive rounds of tariffs, said on May 30 that China has “totally violated” the bilateral de-escalation deal.

China’s Commerce Ministry hit back this week, saying the Trump administration had since introduced “discriminatory restrictive measures”, including revoking Chinese student visas in the US.

With the fresh conflict threatening the fragile detente, market analysts were hopeful the conversation would pave the way to a trade off-ramp.

US stocks rose on news of the call, with the SP 500 extending gains into a fourth straight day. But the numbers later dipped on weaker-than-expected jobs data

The phone call between the leaders marks