China has mentioned that President Xi Jinping has not spoken with President Trump recently, killing any idea once again that the two leaders were secretly chatting to fix their trade war. The government made this statement during a press conference, denying Trump’s claim made last week in a Time magazine interview that Xi had picked up the phone and called him.
According to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there have been no calls, negotiations, or backdoor deals to fix the tariff issue between the two biggest economies on the planet. Spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry Guo Jiakun, spoke to reporters and said, “As far as I know, there has been no recent phone call between the two heads of state.” He also added that the claims are lies. “I want to reiterate that China and the United States are not engaged in consultations or negotiations on the tariff issue. These are lies,” Jiakun said.
China brands Trump’s claim as ‘lies’
Despite China denying the idea, Trump kept his own story alive. Last week, he tried to soften the mess he created with his eccentrically high tariffs, promising that these levies would “come down substantially” and claiming he would be “very nice” at the negotiation table if Xi wanted to join him.
“He’s called. And I don’t think that’s a sign of weakness on his behalf,” Trump said during his Time interview. He also tried to make it sound casual, but he didn’t say what they supposedly talked about, when the call even happened, or why it was not mentioned officially.
Later on Friday, CNN’s Alayna Treene pushed Trump to explain himself as he left the South Lawn of the White House. Instead of answering, Trump ducked the question, saying, “I don’t want to comment on that, but I’ve spoken to him many times.” There were also no details given, no confirmation, just vague answers. Publicly available records show the last real phone call between Trump and Xi was on January 17, days before Trump took the oath for his second term.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday and already made it pretty obvious he had no clue about any phone calls between Trump and Xi. When Martha Raddatz asked him directly whether Trump had spoken with Xi, Scott said, “I don’t know if President Trump has spoken with President Xi.”
Instead of confirming anything, the former Wall Street man tried to cool things down by saying that the US government was talking with “various nations” about trade and admitted that the high tariffs could not last forever. Even when pressed harder, Scott could only say that Trump and Xi had a “very good relationship and a lot of respect for each other.”