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Xi Jinping
Taiwan's ties with the United States are "rock solid," the island's president said Thursday, hours after President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke on the phone about topics that included the self-ruled island's future. "The Taiwan-US relationship is rock solid, and all cooperation projects will continue uninterrupted," Taiwan President Lai Ching-te told reporters during a visit to textile merchants in western Taiwan. The comments came after Xi, in his first call with Trump since November, warned the US president to be "prudent" about supplying arms to the self-ruled island, according to a readout of their call provided by China's Foreign Ministry. Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy that China claims as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. Beijing prohibits all countries it has diplomatic relations with - including the US - from having formal ties with Taipei. Still, while the US doesn't officially recognize Taiwan as a country, it is the island's .
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the situation in Iran in a wide-ranging call that comes as the US administration pushes Beijing and others to isolate Tehran. Trump said the two leaders also discussed a broad range of other critical issues in the US-China relationship, including trade and Taiwan and his plans to visit Beijing in April. Trump, who continues to weigh taking military action against Iran, announced last month in a social media post he would impose a 25 per cent tax on imports to the United States from countries that do business with Iran. Years of sanctions aimed at stopping Iran's nuclear program have left the country isolated. But Tehran still did nearly USD 125 billion in international trade in 2024, including USD 32 billion with China, USD 28 billion with the United Arab Emirates and USD 17 billion with Turkey, according to the World Trade Organization.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks via video on Wednesday, Chinese state media said. There were no immediate details on their conversation. The virtual meeting came in the middle of a series of meetings between Xi and Western leaders who have sought to boost ties with China despite differences over Russia's war in Ukraine. The British and Canadian prime ministers visited Beijing last month and the German chancellor is expected to later this month. The call with Putin may have been in part to reassure Russia that China's position on the war hasn't changed. European leaders have pressed China for years to end its support for Russia. China has continued to trade with Russia, providing some relief from Western economic sanctions. Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu traveled to Beijing last weekend and met China's top foreign policy official, Wang Yi. The two officials agreed their countries should maintain close ties in a turbulent ..
Faced with new global challenges, the leaders of China and Canada pledged Friday to improve relations between their two nations after years of acrimony. Xi Jinping told visiting Prime Minister Mark Carney that he is willing to continue working to improve ties, noting that talks have been underway on restoring and restarting cooperation since the two held an initial meeting in October on the sidelines of a regional economic conference in South Korea. It can be said that our meeting last year opened a new chapter in turning ChinaCanada relations toward improvement, China's top leader said. Carney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit China in eight years, said better relations would help improve a global governance system that he described as under great strain. He called for a new relationship adapted to new global realities and cooperation in agriculture, energy and finance. Those new realities reflect in large part the so-called America-first approach of US President Donald