President Donald Trump said that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping had an “extremely good” phone call. They talked about many issues, including trade, Taiwan, and the tense situation in Iran. This is a tricky situation because the U.S. is trying to cut off Iran from the world, but China is Iran’s biggest economic partner.
According to ABC News, Trump shared his thoughts on social media after the call. He said, “The relationship with China, and my personal relationship with President Xi, is an extremely good one, and we both realize how important it is to keep it that way.” China also released a statement about the call and mentioned future high-level meetings, but they did not talk about Trump’s planned visit to Beijing in April.
The hardest topic they discussed was Iran. Relations between Washington and Tehran are very tense right now, especially after Iran violently stopped protests last month. Trump has talked openly about possible military action against Iran. He is also pushing Iran to make big changes to its nuclear program, which the U.S. claims was already damaged when Israel bombed three Iranian nuclear sites during a 12-day war in June.
China’s trade with Iran creates a major problem for U.S. strategy
Here is where the U.S. plan faces a huge problem: China is Iran’s largest trading partner. Last month, Trump announced the U.S. would add a 25% tax on imports from any country that keeps doing business with Iran. Years of sanctions have cut Iran off from much of the world, but the country still had nearly $125 billion in international trade during 2024. China made up $32 billion of that total. This is a huge amount and shows why China will not easily stop trading with Iran.
On Wednesday, U.S. and Iranian officials said they agreed to hold high-level talks on Friday in Oman. The talks were first planned for Turkey, but Iran wanted to move them to the Gulf country. A White House official said the administration is “very skeptical” about whether the talks will work, but they agreed to change the location out of respect for allies in the region.
The two leaders also talked about Taiwan. China made it clear that it will not give up on its goal of bringing Taiwan under its control. Beijing sees Taiwan as its territory and was angry about the massive weapons sale the Trump administration announced in December.
That deal included more than $10 billion worth of medium-range missiles, howitzers, and drones for Taiwan. China’s statement was strong: “Taiwan will never be allowed to separate from China,” and the U.S. “must handle the issue of arms sales to Taiwan with prudence.” Beijing has previously warned it is ready to fight any war the U.S. starts if tensions continue to rise.
This security issue comes as the New START treaty, the last nuclear weapons agreement between the U.S. and Russia, expires on Thursday. This could remove all limits on the two largest nuclear weapon collections for the first time in over fifty years. Trump has said he wants to keep limits on nuclear weapons, but he wants China to be part of any new agreement.
The White House is also trying to reduce dependence on China in other important areas. Vice President JD Vance held a meeting in Washington with dozens of countries from Europe, Asia, and Africa to discuss rebuilding global supply chains of critical minerals without China.
Vance said at the meeting, “What is before all of us is an opportunity at self-reliance that we never have to rely on anybody else except for each other, for the critical minerals necessary to sustain our industries and to sustain growth.” Critical minerals are needed for everything from jet engines to smartphones, and China currently controls most of that market. Meanwhile, China is positioning itself as a stable trade partner for other nations.
Published: Feb 5, 2026 11:03 am