An hour-and-a-half phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday appeared to resolve a number of thorny issues, from rare earth exports to Chinese student visas, but the reality will likely remain far messier than the rhetoric.
The call was the first known conversation between the two leaders since Trump took office for a second term. It came after a surprisingly successful Swiss summit in early May where the two countries’ trade teams agreed to roll back tariffs that had escalated to sky-high levels in an April trade spat triggered by Trump, with the United States dropping its rate from 145 percent to 30 percent, and China dropping its rate to 10 percent. The countries also agreed to a 90-day pause in further tariffs to negotiate a larger trade deal.
In the weeks following that Geneva meeting, the chipper mood predictably dissipated, with each side continuing to exploit the other’s vulnerabilities. Washington slapped new restrictions on Huawei chips and the export of U.S. semiconductor and aviation technology to China. Beijing, for its part, had agreed in Geneva to drop non-tariff measures on the United States, but it continued to use a new export control system for rare earth elements and magnets—initiated during the April trade flare-up—to limit exports to the United States. Major U.S. corporations in the defense and automotive sectors that are highly dependent on that Chinese supply chain, including Ford, have been facing a significant crunch.
The rare earths issue was clearly a top priority for Trump on the call. In a Truth Social post after the exchange, he claimed victory. “There should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products.”
However, the Chinese readout made no mention of the minerals.
Daniel Russel, vice president of international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said in a press statement that Trump’s line was “bafflingly opaque and suggests no concrete outcome.” Whether the call actually helps restart the flow of minerals to the United States remains to be seen at Chinese ports in the coming weeks.
Beijing also walked away with a victory, even if just rhetorically. The Chinese readout stated, “The United States welcomes Chinese students to study in the United States.” That would be a significant reversal from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announcement last week that the department would “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students,” which has thrown the Chinese student community into chaos. Trump appeared to confirm the reversal in a press conference with visiting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday, saying, “Chinese students are coming—no problem. It’s our honor to have them, frankly.”
How or whether these statements translate into policy, again, remains an open question.
The overall tone of the statements and readouts from both sides was largely positive, including invitations from both presidents to host each other. This was particularly the case for Trump, who said it was a “very good phone call.”
Scott Kennedy, senior advisor and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Foreign Policy that the dynamic showed the effectiveness of China’s strategy. “China’s found an economic tool that really bites, so the president has got a variety of reasons to frame this in a positive light,” he said.
The upbeat tone from Trump also reflects a familiar dynamic in which he has consistently displayed warmth and openness toward Xi and China, while other parts of his administration have pursued a more hawkish agenda—whether by design or disjointedness.
Beijing’s readout notably contained more warnings, though, including for the United States to cease any interference and sabotage of China and handle Taiwan prudently. The readout also contained a “subtle dig” at the United States, Kennedy said, by noting that the call had happened at Trump’s request—signaling that Washington was groveling for Beijing to relent.
The superpowers will continue to test their relationship in the new Trump era in the next round of trade talks, which both sides agreed to set up during the call.
Major challenges continue to stand in the way of a broader trade deal, namely the conflict between China’s export-dependent economic model and Trump’s desire to reshore manufacturing. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in Geneva in May that the two sides could “rebalance together,” but experts see a long and difficult road of negotiations ahead. It took years for both sides to broker a trade deal in the first term—a deal that China did not ultimately uphold.
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