Trump says he will visit China in April to meet Xi Jinping

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he has accepted an invitation from Chinese leader Xi Jinping to visit Beijing in April. The invitation came during a call between the two leaders on Monday morning, in which they discussed several areas of bilateral and geopolitical tension, including China’s modest purchases of American soybeans, as well as the situation in Ukraine and Taiwan.

The call came just weeks after a summit between leaders in South Korea, where officials agreed to a year-long truce that reversed many of the tariffs Trump imposed on China and the retaliatory measures Beijing took in response.

In a social media post Monday afternoon, Trump said it was a “very good phone call” that addressed Ukraine, Chinese exports of chemicals used to make fentanyl and purchases of agricultural products. He described the call as a “follow-up to our highly successful meeting in South Korea” and said there had been significant progress on both sides in meeting these commitments.

“Now we can focus on the big picture,” Trump said. “To this end, President Xi invited me to visit Beijing in April, an invitation I accepted, and I reciprocated by inviting him to be my guest on a State Visit to the USA later this year.”

In its official statement, Chinese state media reported on Monday that the leaders discussed the situation in Ukraine and that Xi called on both countries to maintain the positive momentum in their relationship since the meeting in South Korea.

State media also reported that Xi “clarified China’s principled position” on Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China claims. Xi emphasized “that Taiwan’s return to China is an important part of the post-war international order,” state media said. Trump had previously stated that Taiwan was not mentioned at the meeting in South Korea.

While the United States and China have welcomed the prospect of an economic truce, American officials have appeared cautious in recent weeks about whether all the promises made at the summit would be fulfilled.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said this month that the U.S. and China were still working out the details of a deal that would guarantee the flow of valuable rare minerals from China. Beijing restricted exports of these products this year amid the trade conflict, causing concern among automakers and other companies that need these minerals for their products.

American and Chinese officials have also differed over Chinese purchases of American agricultural products. China suspended purchases of American soybeans this year as trade tensions with the US escalated. After the meeting in South Korea, the Trump administration said China had agreed to resume purchases of American soybeans. However, the Chinese government has never specifically confirmed the details of this agreement.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told CNBC on Monday that China has purchased about 1.5 million metric tons of soybeans since Oct. 1, a total far below the 12 million metric tons that the Trump administration said the Chinese government has committed to purchasing by the end of the year.

“We have a significant way to go,” Rollins said. “All signs indicate that their commitment remains true.”

Rollins said the terms of the deal with China still needed to be finalized. She also explained that the preliminary agreement did not require soybeans to be shipped until the end of the year, but that orders needed to be placed.

Amid the truce, the Trump administration has also been debating what kind of American AI technology to sell to China. Technology executives prefer to sell more advanced products to the country to try to prevent Chinese companies from developing competing products, but some Washington officials still see any effort to help China’s AI industry as a threat to national security.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who is responsible for technology export licenses, said that Trump was listening to several advisers with different opinions on the issue and that the decision on whether to sell the H200, a more advanced chip made by Nvidia, was “on his desk.”

“He’s going to weigh those decisions,” Lutnick said of the president. “He understands President Xi best. He will decide whether we move forward with this or not.”