Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by telephone Sunday with Donald Trump, according to a statement issued by the president-elect's transition team.
Aides to the president-elect said he “believes the two leaders will have one of the strongest relationships for both countries moving forward,” while Mr. Xi was quoted in Chinese media as saying there was “huge potential” in cooperation between the two nations.
But the conversation, in which the two “established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another,” according to the statement, came as a state-run newspaper in China warned President-elect Trump against punitive trade measures.
Despite the outwardly friendly tone from Trump and Xi, the media organ of the Community Party of China condemned the president-elect as “naïve” for his pledge to levy a 45% tariff on Chinese imports to the United States, warning it would result in a retaliatory squeeze on American exports of automobiles, agriculture, and smartphones.
“China will take a tit-for-tat approach,” an unsigned editorial in the Global Times reads. “A batch of Boeing orders will be replaced by Airbus. U.S. auto and iPhone sales in China will suffer a setback, and U.S. soybean and maize imports will be halted. China can also limit the number of Chinese students studying in the U.S.”
The two nations traded some $650 billion in goods last year, registering the Chinese trading relationship as America's second-most profitable.
Trump described the trade deficit between China and the United States as “the greatest theft in the history of the world” and has pledged to officially label the country a currency manipulator on this first day in office. In the days since his historic victory last week, though, the president-elect has adopted a more conciliatory tone with China.
Soapbox will continue to monitor transition developments, including key staffing and agency appointments, foreign relations, and policy objectives.
