By Zheping Huang
Two weeks into his presidency, President Trump has spoken with 18 foreign heads-of-state, either by phone or in person.
Xi Jinping’s name is conspicuously missing.
Over the weekend, President Trump called Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and New Zealand prime minister Bill English.
Over the weekend, President Trump called Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and New Zealand prime minister Bill English.
Those phone calls came after he had already spoken to 16 foreign leaders since he took office—with an emphasis on “his priority of American national security”—according to a White House statement released on Feb. 4.
Here’s the full list:
Xi and President Trump have in fact communicated, but that was before President Trump was inaugurated.
Here’s the full list:
- President of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto
- Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau
- President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo
- Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu
- President of Egypt, Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi
- Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi
- British Prime Minister, Theresa May
- Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe
- German Chancellor, Angela Merkel
- President of Russia, Vladimir Putin
- President of France, François Hollande
- Prime minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull
- King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud
- Crown Prince of the UAE, Mohammed bin Zayed
- Acting President of South Korea, Hwang Kyo-Ahn
- King Abdullah II of Jordan
- President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko
- Prime Minister of New Zealand, Bill English
Xi and President Trump have in fact communicated, but that was before President Trump was inaugurated.
Xi sent a congratulatory telegram and made a phone call to President Trump soon after he won the election in November.
The last reported interaction between the two was in the form of holiday greetings—President Trump told the Wall Street Journal (paywall) in an interview published on Jan. 13 that he had received a “beautiful card from Xi.”
By comparison, 10 days after his inauguration in 2009, Barack Obama and Hu Jintao discussed global trade imbalances in a phone call.
By comparison, 10 days after his inauguration in 2009, Barack Obama and Hu Jintao discussed global trade imbalances in a phone call.
In March 2013, a day after Xi was formally elected president, Obama called Xi to congratulate him.
The communication gap has raised eyebrows among Chinese, particularly as tensions between the world’s two biggest economies are mounting over issues including the South China Sea, Taiwan, and trade.
The communication gap has raised eyebrows among Chinese, particularly as tensions between the world’s two biggest economies are mounting over issues including the South China Sea, Taiwan, and trade.
In January, Xi rebuked President Trump’s "protectionist" policies—without actually mentioning President Trump’s name—in his big speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
When asked about the timing of the first call between Xi and President Trump after President Trump’s inauguration, Lu Kang, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, didn’t directly address the issue at a Feb. 3 press briefing.
On the same day, China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi told President Trump’s national security advisor Michael Flynn in a phone call that the two sides should “manage and control disputes and sensitive issues,” a foreign ministry statement paraphrased Yang as saying, without giving details.
In another snub, President Trump ignored a decades-long tradition of sending holiday greetings to the Chinese public during the recent Lunar New Year holiday.
When asked about the timing of the first call between Xi and President Trump after President Trump’s inauguration, Lu Kang, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, didn’t directly address the issue at a Feb. 3 press briefing.
On the same day, China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi told President Trump’s national security advisor Michael Flynn in a phone call that the two sides should “manage and control disputes and sensitive issues,” a foreign ministry statement paraphrased Yang as saying, without giving details.
In another snub, President Trump ignored a decades-long tradition of sending holiday greetings to the Chinese public during the recent Lunar New Year holiday.
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