Trump announces China visit in 2026 after call with Xi to seal US TikTok deal

Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held a telephone conversation on Friday, as confirmed first by Chinese state media and later by Trump himself. According to the U.S. president, the conversation served to confirm that both leaders have sealed an “agreement” allowing the popular video app TikTok, which was facing a ban by Congress, to continue operating in the United States, and also to set a schedule for upcoming meetings. First, they will meet in South Korea in October. Then, Trump will travel to China “early next year,” and Xi will visit Washington “at the appropriate time.”

The interview comes at a time when favorable winds are blowing in a relationship that was strained after trade delegations from both capitals met in Madrid on Monday. The messages released by both sides avoid clarifying how the most tense issue between the two countries, the tariff war, will be resolved.

The Republican’s full message was posted on Truth, his social network: “We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal,” wrote the U.S. president, who did not provide further details on that pact.

Regarding the meeting schedule, he added: “I also agreed with President Xi that we would meet at the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Summit in South Korea, that I would go to China in the early part of next year, and that President Xi would, likewise, come to the United States at an appropriate time. The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at APEC!”

Beijing had released a statement earlier, saying that it had been a “frank” exchange in which Xi highlighted the role of both countries as allies in World War II before discuss the current trade conflict. “We must cherish peace and build the future on the basis of remembering the martyrs and history,” the Chinese president said, according to the official version published in Chinese state media.

“China and the United States can perfectly well boost each other, prosper together, benefit both countries, and contribute to the world,” Xi said, stressing that both Washington and Beijing must “make efforts to achieve mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation.”

Xi also highlighted the importance of recent consultations between U.S. and Chinese delegations, and made specific reference to TikTok. His words confirm that the agreement has Beijing’s approval. “The Chinese government respects the wishes of companies and is pleased to see that companies are doing a good job in trade negotiations based on market rules to reach solutions that comply with Chinese laws and regulations and balance interests,” he said. In turn, he added, he hopes that “the United States will provide an open, fair, and non-discriminatory business environment” for Chinese companies’ investments. The statement also noted that Beijing will support consultations between the two teams “to properly resolve the TikTok issue.”

Trump, according to the Chinese statement, praised the recent military parade with which China celebrated the 80th anniversary of the end of its war against Japan: it was “wonderful,” he said. And he highlighted “cooperation between the two countries” as a vehicle for promoting “world peace and stability.” He assured that Washington hopes to maintain a “good and long-term” relationship with China and promote economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

The short video social network TikTok, which is hugely popular among young people, has thus become an excuse for Washington and Beijing to partially channel relations. The call, the duration of which has not been disclosed, is the first telephone conversation between the leaders since June, and the third so far this year.

The meeting in South Korea will take place in October, shortly before the end of the truce decreed by Trump on the application of tariffs on China.

The call brought to a close a week that began in a conciliatory spirit in Madrid. Trade delegations from both countries met in the Spanish capital to resolve their long list of grievances and managed to agree on a preliminary solution to separate TikTok’s ownership from ByteDance, its Chinese parent company.

The Chinese social network, with 170 million users in the United States, was facing a ban from Washington unless ByteDance agreed to sell its U.S. subsidiary. The measure was approved in 2024 by the U.S. Congress, while Joe Biden was still in the White House, on national security grounds due to TikTok’s links to the Chinese Communist Party. It was widely supported by both Republicans and Democrats and confirmed by the Supreme Court shortly before Trump took office. The Republican magnate postponed the law’s entry into force three times.

The agreement in principle, according to the delegation from the People’s Republic, implies that the Chinese company would be willing to delegate the operation of U.S. user data and content security services, and would authorize the use of algorithms (one of the fundamental battles: these operations are the alchemy of the application) and other intellectual property rights. All that remained was for the two heads of state to give their approval to the agreement.

“TikTok helped me get elected”

“I like TikTok; it helped me get elected,” Trump said Thursday at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, concluding a state trip to the UK. “TikTok has tremendous value. The United States has that value in its hand because we’re the ones that have to approve it.” In an apparent reference to the broader trade negotiations, the U.S. president added: “We may do an extension with China but it’s an extension based on the same terms that we have right now, which are pretty good terms.” On Monday, after the agreement in Madrid, Trump wrote: “The relationship [with China] remains very strong!”

In the United States, the acquisition of the social network by a consortium that includes Oracle, Silver Lake, and Andreessen Horowitz is widely considered a done deal.

The détente between the two powers is just another turn on the Trump-era economic policy rollercoaster, where everything that goes up must come down, only to rise again, so it will be difficult to know whether a truce has any chance of lasting. There have been critical moments, when Chinese spokesmen asserted that their country is prepared to wage “any kind of war” with the United States. Now, somewhat more conciliatory times appear to be underway.

Shortly after taking office, Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese imports. Beijing responded forcefully, also raising tariffs on U.S. imports and restricting the export of critical resources such as rare earths.

The exchange of fire resulted in astronomical tariffs on trade, amounting to an effective cross-embargo between the two giants. They finally managed to ease tensions through meetings of their trade delegations, first in Geneva in May — where they agreed to reduce Washington’s tariffs to 30% and Beijing’s to 10%, and granted themselves a 90-day truce, which has been extended until November — then in London, Stockholm, and finally in Madrid.

The battles are numerous and complex. There are purely commercial issues, and others linked to the technological and military race between superpowers. Some date back quite far, to Trump’s first term in the White House. After this week’s meeting in Spain, Beijing warned the United States that it believes Washington has unduly expanded the concept of national security and continually expanded the list of sanctions against Chinese entities, in “a typical act of unilateral intimidation that violates international law,” according to Li Chenggang, China’s special envoy for international trade affairs.

The truce is volatile, and there is always collateral damage. On Monday, Beijing — where the government rarely acts randomly — accused U.S. chipmaker Nvidia of violating Chinese antitrust laws, igniting a new skirmish in the battle for Chinese access to the most advanced U.S. semiconductors, which stretches back to 2022.

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