China’s president Xi Jinping says Trump lied about them having a phone call

China’s government flat-out said on Monday that President Xi Jinping has not spoken with President Trump recently, killing any idea once again that the two leaders were secretly chatting to fix their trade war.

Beijing made this statement during a regular press conference, slamming Trump’s claim made last week in a Time magazine interview that Xi had picked up the phone and called him.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there have been no calls, no negotiations, and no backdoor deals to fix the tariff disaster between the two biggest economies on the planet.

Guo Jiakun, the spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, stood in front of reporters and said, “As far as I know, there has been no recent phone call between the two heads of state.”

He went even further to drive the point home: “I want to reiterate that China and the United States are not engaged in consultations or negotiations on the tariff issue. These are lies.” That was about as clean and cold as it could get.

No talk, no deals, no progress.

Beijing shuts down Trump’s lies

Despite China throwing a concrete wall at the idea, Trump kept his own story alive. Last week, he tried to soften the mess he created with his eccentrically high tariffs, promising that these levies would “come down substantially” and claiming he would be “very nice” at the negotiation table if Xi wanted to jump in.

“He’s called. And I don’t think that’s a sign of weakness on his behalf,” Trump said during his Time interview, trying to make it sound casual. But he didn’t say what they supposedly talked about, when the call even happened, or why it was not mentioned officially.

Later on Friday, CNN’s Alayna Treene pushed Trump to explain himself as he left the South Lawn of the White House. Instead of answering, Trump ducked the question, saying, “I don’t want to comment on that, but I’ve spoken to him many times.”

There were no details given, no confirmation, just vague answers – classic Trump. Publicly available records show the last real phone call between Trump and Xi was on January 17, days before Trump took the oath for his second term. That was months ago.

Even after Trump kept tossing around claims that negotiations were happening, China kept smacking them down. Hours before the Time interview hit the news, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued another statement warning the United States not to “mislead the public” about what was happening with trade talks.

Since getting back into the White House, Trump has ordered a 145% levy on goods coming in from China, but he made exceptions for electronics like smartphones and computers. He called them “reciprocal” even though that word didn’t make sense when you know all the context.

But China answered by raising its own tariffs on American imports to 125%. At the same time, they made some quiet moves behind the scenes, cutting tariffs on certain US-made semiconductors. Import agencies picked up the change, saying it looked like China was trying to give a little breathing room to its tech industry while keeping pressure on the United States.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday and already made it pretty obvious he had no clue about any phone calls between Trump and Xi.

When Martha Raddatz asked him directly whether Trump had spoken with Xi, Scott said, “I don’t know if President Trump has spoken with President Xi.”

Instead of confirming anything, the former Wall Street star tried to cool things down by saying that the US government was talking with “various nations” about trade and admitted that the high tariffs could not last forever.

Even when pressed harder, Scott could only say that Trump and Xi had a “very good relationship and a lot of respect for each other.”

So while Trump keeps painting a picture of secret deals and cozy phone calls, Beijing and even his own guy are telling a very different story: no calls, no talks, and no quick end to the brutal tariff fight.

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