Beijing signals red lines on Taiwan ahead of Trump's China visit
Trade, Taiwan, and diplomacy dominate Xi-Trump call ahead of China visit
Welcome back to What’s Happening in China, your weekly China brief.
The Financial Times reported this week that Beijing threatened to cancel Trump’s planned visit to China in April if a new U.S. arms sales package to Taiwan goes ahead. In their first call since November, Xi Jinping warned Trump on Wednesday that China “will never allow Taiwan to be separated,” adding that Washington “must handle the issue of arms sales to Taiwan with prudence.”
This rhymes with last week’s news that Beijing refused to confirm Starmer’s trip to China until London approved the construction of a new Chinese mega-embassy.
Despite the warning, according to Reuters, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Thursday that “Taiwan–U.S. relations are rock-solid” and that cooperation would continue unchanged.
Still, to avoid further escalation with Beijing, it is now possible that the U.S. arms sale is delayed until after Trump’s April visit.
Let’s jump into it.
— PC
Through the Lens
In Focus
I. Xi-Trump call
China is considering buying more U.S.-farmed soybeans, President Donald Trump said after what he called “very positive” talks with President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, even as Beijing warned Washington about arms sales to Taiwan.
In a goodwill gesture two months before Trump’s expected visit to Beijing, Trump said Xi would consider hiking soybean purchases from the United States to 20 million metric tons in the current season, up from 12 million tons previously. Soybean futures rallied.
Hours after Xi’s virtual meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Xi and Trump discussed Taiwan and a wide range of trade and security issues that remain a source of tension between the world’s two biggest economies. Both leaders publicly affirmed their personal stakes in strong relations after the call, their first since November.
Trump said on Truth Social that the call was “all very positive,” that his relationship with Xi is “extremely good,” and that “we both realize how important it is to keep it that way.” An official Chinese government account said that Xi had said, “I attach great importance to Sino-U.S. relations.”
Read: Trump, Xi discuss Taiwan and soybeans in call aimed at easing China, US relations (Reuters)
Related:
Be ‘prudent’ about supplying arms to Taiwan, Xi tells Trump in call (The Guardian)
China’s Xi holds calls with Trump, and Putin, on same day (DW)
II. Critical minerals: reducing reliance on China
Vance said the US-China trade war of the past year has exposed how dependent most countries are on critical minerals, the sale of which Beijing largely dominates. Therefore, collective action is needed to make the West self-reliant, he stressed.
“We want members to form a trading bloc among allies and partners, one that guarantees American access to American industrial might while also expanding production across the entire zone,” Vance said at the opening of a meeting that Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted with officials from 55 European, Asian and African nations.
“We want to eliminate that problem of people flooding into our markets with cheap critical minerals to undercut our domestic manufacturers,” Vance told a gathering without mentioning China.
Read: US wants to establish critical minerals trade bloc (DW)
Related:
U.S. plans critical mineral price floors with Mexico, EU and Japan (CNBC)
EU, US and Japan to cooperate on critical raw materials supply chains (Euronews)
EU’s climate goals at risk without China’s critical raw materials, EU auditors warn (Euronews)
China criticises US plan for critical minerals trade bloc (Reuters)
Critical minerals and coalitions of the willing (Mike Froman)
Leapfrogging China’s Critical Minerals Dominance (Council on Foreign Relations)
